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THE WOMAN BEAUTIFUL 
IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. 




An Incorrect Poise. 



The Woman Beautiful 
In the Twentieth Century 



By MADAME ESTELLE D'AUBIGNY. 



BE A UTY, FORM AND HEAL TH 




NEW YORK AND LONDON 
STREET & SMITH, PUBLISHERS 



f T*E XretfArtV OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two CuHltft RtCtlvED 
OrtPVPIOMT ENTRY 

SLASgC^XXo. No. 
COPY 8. 



Copyright 1902, 
By STREET & SMITH. 



The Woman Beautiful 
In the Twentieth Century. 



PREFACE. 



It is the duty of every woman to make herself as at- 
tractive as possible. Personal appearance is one of the 
most important aids to success in life — success not only 
in social, but also in business matters. Especially in 
business matters one is guided very much by externals 
as regards one's own feelings toward strangers, and 
many a suitable person has lost a valuable position by 
some slight defect which a few hours devoted to physical 
culture would have removed. 

Every woman can improve her appearance if she sets 
about it properly; but I have no patience with the so- 
called "beauty experts" who claim that they can trans- 
form a homely person into a beauty. They rely chiefly 
upon artificial aids, and such methods are entirely wrong. 
The woman who makes liberal use of the complexions 
that are put on and off in a night is no nearer the ideal 
of beauty than the untutored savage who streaks his face 
with paint. There is one and only one way to beauty, 
and I have sought in these pages to point out this way. 
Give the body a chance to do the beautifying— it can do 
it, and more thoroughly than any "beauty doctor" on 
earth. Many of my readers may be busy women, but 
I would like to assure them that the little time spent 
daily in following out the suggestions made in these 
pages will be amply repaid in the years to come. 

ESTELLE D'AUBIGNY. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Introduction 9 

The Essence of Beauty 15 

The Perfection of Beauty 21 

Character and Beauty 25 

To Transform the Face 29 

The Foundation of Beauty 32 

The Effect of Exercise 35 

Why We Grow Tired 48 

For Large-framed Women .53 

Keeping Young by Exercise 55 

The Best of All Medicines 61 

A Simple Morning Exercize 69 

To Strengthen the Neck 71 

How to Possess Beautiful A rms 72 

For Graceful Shoulders 76 

The Muscles of the Back 77 

To Develop the Chest 79 

For the Sides . . 83 

To Acquire Shapely Limbs 84 

For All the Muscles . 89 

The Heart's Action 90 

A Graceful Figure 91 

Breathing for Beauty 93 

When to Rest 105 

The Science of Eating . 109 

To Acquire an Appetite 123 

v 



vi CONTENTS 

Nourishing the Brain 126 

The Evil of Overeating . 133 

Table of Digestion 136 

The Value of Fruits . 140 

The Value of Vegetables 145 

Foods to Avoid ' . . . 149 

What to Drink and When 152 

Bathing for Beauty 164 

To Keep the Skin Healthy 180 

Ailments of the Skin ....... 189 

The Care of the Hands . . . . . . 191 

The Art of Cleansing . . . . . . 194 

The Cause of Bad Complexions . 200 

To Preserve the Complexion . . . . . . 202 

Sleeping for Beauty 213 

To Cure Sleeplessness 222 

Dieting for the Complexion . . . . . . 224 

For Thin People ........ 233 

For Stout People . . . . . . . .242 

To Remove Freckles . 248 

To Prevent Wrinkles • 251 

Dressing for Beauty . . • . • . • 256 



ILL USTRA LIONS 



1 — To Strengthen the Neck . 

2 — For the Neck, Back and Arms . 

3 — To Strengthen and Beautify the Arms 

4 — For Graceful Shoulders . 

5 — For the Muscles of the Back 

6 — A Non-resistance Exercise for the Back 

7 — To Develop the Chest 

8 — For the Chest, Lungs, Arms and Shoulders 

9 — For the Muscles of the Sides, Back, Shoulders and 
10 — An Excellent Resisting Exercise 
11 — For the Back and Limbs 
12 — A Non-resistance Exercise for the Lower Limbs 
13 — To Acquire Strong, Shapely Limbs . 
14 — For the Legs and Arms .... 
15 — To Strengthen the Ankles 

16 — For the Arms 

17 — To Become Muscular and Strong 

18 — For All the Muscles .... 

19 — A Valuable Exercise for the Heart . 

20 — For Adding Grace and Beauty to the Figure 

21 — For Symmetry 

22 — How to Breathe Correctly 

23 — Diaphramatic Breathing .... 

24 — Aiding the Internal Muscles in Deep Breathing 

25 — An Incorrect Poise 

26 — The Proper Poise of the Body . 



Legs 



13 

19 

27 

37 

45 

51 

57 

65 

73 

81 

87 

95 

101 

113 

119 

127 

141 

153 

161 

171 

181 

195 

205 

215 

227 

237 



THE WOMAN BEAUTIFUL. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Is there any excuse in these days for the unattractive 
woman? If nature has denied the features of a Venus 
is the case hopeless? By no means. It is within the 
reach of all women to become beautiful to some extent. 
A symmetrical figure, a graceful carriage, a well-poised 
head — these are what count, rather than the straight 
nose or the cupid mouth. The latter are nothing, un- 
less they are accompanied by a well-developed form. 

Beauty is an accident sometimes, more often it is 
the result of care and attention. It can easily be culti- 
vated, and we have been cultivating it more or less un- 
consciously by a variety of methods for a long time 
past. This age may, in comparison with earlier ones, 
be described as hygienic in the extreme, and health 
means beauty. There are more good-looking girls to- 
day than ever before, and there are reasons for it, and 



io The Woman Beautiful. 

because there is more beauty than ever, there is, per- 
haps, not quite so much enthusiasm about it. 

Girls of the present day are good at the oar, they 
are expert cyclists, they are not easily beaten on the 
tennis-court, and they are strong at golf. 

The study of beauty has, no doubt, had its influence ; 
but healthy exercise is undoubtedly the real cause 
and secret of this increase of good looks. 

Those much sought after elements of beauty — a 
peach-like complexion, bright, flashing eyes, hair that 
may really be termed glorious, teeth like pearls, superb 
physical proportions — and the grace and beauty which 
accompany strong muscles — these can be acquired 
without much effort. 

It is first of all necessary to select a good series of 
muscular exercises and practice them regularly every 
day. Do not be misled by the term muscular. It does 
not mean being possessed of those great knots of muscle 
that one sees on the breast and arms of professional 
athletes; but there can be no beauty of form without 
a fine framework of muscles. 

The fatty tissue simply fills out the hollows, and if 
one wishes to possess exquisite outlines there must be 
a strong muscular system underneath to give firmness 
and beauty to the body. 



The Woman Beautiful. n 

The marvel is that so few women realize how easy 
it is for them to double their charms by spending a 
little time daily on physical culture. It is a girl's first 
duty to be beautiful, and if she refuses to make use of 
the great natural gifts which lie dormant, ready to 
spring into life, no one but herself is to blame if she 
develop into a homely or, at least, an unattractive 
woman. 

There is no cause for dismay if a glance at the mir- 
ror does not show you a face beautiful in every detail. 
Remember, it is not the face alone that is responsible 
for woman's power, but rather the cultured beauty of 
body and personality of character. Nevertheless, 
beauty of face is a possible attainment. 

The formation of the features — as, for example, the 
shape of the nose, the width of the mouth, the thickness 
of the lips, the size and color of the eyes, the construc- 
tion of the ears, and form of the chin — can never, of 
course, be changed. They are the cunning workman- 
ship of nature, made for all time, and some have even 
thought for eternity. 

The fact, however, remains the same, that beauty 
is easily a possible attainment. The character and 
expression of the countenance can be beautified to a 
great degree by correcting and directing the various 



12 The Woman Beautiful. 

influences of the mind; while the face generally, to- 
gether with its complexion, can be gracefully trans- 
formed by submission to the great laws of health, and 
by strict attention to the smallest details relative to diet 
and regimen. 




Figure 1. 

To Strengthen the Neck. 



THE ESSENCE OF BEAUTY. 



Beauty is, in its essence, a quality not of matter, but 
of soul. Behind everything beautiful, whether ani- 
mate or inanimate, there must be soul-beauty, there 
must be perfection of character of which that harmony 
of color or of form, of movement or of sound, which 
we call beauty is but the physical expression. 

Every beautiful face is the outgrowth of a beautiful 
mind and heart, a noble character that lived sometime, 
somewhere. 

The truly beautiful must be truly good, and the truly 
good must likewise be beautiful. As we sometimes 
find diamonds in the mud, so beauty may be hidden 
by its unbeautiful surroundings ; and the beauty of 
goodness, like that of the diamond in the rough, may 
not appear until the polishing has been applied. 

To be handsome is one thing; to be beautiful, quite 
another. A handsome face may be so marred by un- 
beautiful signs hung out upon it as to be positively re- 
pulsive ; while a less regularly formed countenance may 
be fairly luminous with the beauty of character behind 
it. 



1 6 The Woman Beautiful. 

Goodness, health, grace, beauty, are one and the 
same thing. Goodness is the perfection or beauty of 
character; health, the perfection or beauty of body. 

The ancient Greeks seem to have had a glimpse of 
this truth when they placed over the entrance to their 
temples the maxim, "A sound mind in a sound body." 

Real beauty is more than skin deep, it cannot be ac- 
quired by mere "surface work." This is true not only 
of physical, but of moral beauty. Indeed, it is not pos- 
sible to separate physical and moral beauty so as to 
make a comparison between them, because both spring 
from the selfsame root — character, sincerity and pur- 
ity. The most beautiful thing ever created — the thing 
which appeals most forcibly and constantly to the aes- 
thetic sense — is light. 

The glorious light which comes from the sun is 
the source of all energy and activity in this world, and 
is, at the same time, the universal beautifier, which by 
its magic touch paints the flowers and the leaves with 
all the tints and hues of the rainbow and the sunset 
skies. 

But this same light is also necessary in the acquire- 
ment of a beautiful face and form. Health means 
beauty, and the body to be healthy must be full of 



The Woman Beautiful. 17 

light. How, then, shall we admit the light? By ex- 
ercise. That is the true way. 

Nature has decreed that by means of exercise the tis- 
sues of the body shall be kept transparent, so that the 
vitalizing and purifying sunlight may penetrate all the 
hidden nooks and corners and recesses of the body. 

The tissue' wastes, the organic dirt of the system, 
the rubbish, the ashes, soot, and clinkers which are 
the natural result of the vital fires, and all the bodily 
activities, are, under the influence of the sunlight, 
burned up by the oxygen which is introduced into the 
body. 

Oxygen is the great house-cleaner, the great deo- 
dorizer, the great disinfectant, the great cleansing, pur- 
ifying agent whereby the highways of the body are 
kept clean and free from obstructing accumulations. 

The degree of vital activity of which we are capable 
is gauged exactly by the amount of oxygen we breathe. 

The bird which soars above the clouds has enormous 
lungs ; even its hollow bones are utilized for breathing 
purposes; it may be said that a bird breathes to the 
very tips of its toes. 

The frog, on the other hand, has no chest, has merely 
a small breathing bag, which it fills at comparatively 
long intervals. Compare the activity of the swallow, 



1 8 The Woman Beautiful. 

easily keeping pace with the lightning express, with 
that of the frog, croaking amid the slime and miasma 
of a stagnant pool. 

A woman who, with untrammeled lungs, stimulated 
by a course of physical training, with brain swept clear 
of mental cobwebs, with pure blood energizing every 
muscle and nerve — such a woman, and only such a 
woman, will find it possible to soar, to rise above the 
clouds, to live in the glorious light of perpetual sun- 
shine; while the woman who spends hours in listless 
reverie, in novel reading, who lives an easy-chair exist- 
ence, either from inclination or a lack of appreciation of 
the need of daily and vigorous bodily exercise — such a 
person cannot rise far above the earth, and can never 
soar. She is of the earth, earthy. She will live a 
frog's life, floundering in the quagmires of disease. 

Exercise is one of the first things essential for 
purity of the blood, soundness of the nerves, clearness 
of the skin and elasticity of the spirit. 




Figure 2. 

For the Neck, Back and Arms. 



THE PERFECTION OF BEAUTY. 



There are two kinds of beauty — individual and ideal. 
The former is the combination of the beautiful features 
of one human face and form; while the latter is a se- 
lection of beautiful parts from several persons. 

It was from such a selection, gathered from the fair- 
est of women and the noblest examples of men, that 
the Greeks chiseled the sublime statues of their gods 
and goddesses, which have always been considered 
triumphs of art. 

What is beauty? The best definition in one word 
is, perhaps, "harmony." 

The beauty of the human countenance has always 
been understood to include the beauty of form in the 
various features of the face ; the beauty of color in the 
various shades of complexion ; the beauty of character 
in some distinctive and permanent relations; and the 
beauty of expression in some immediate and tem- 
porary feeling. 

According to Walker, the physiologist, beauty de- 
pends greatly upon the profile, and particularly on the 
line described by the forehead and nose, by the greater 



12 The Woman Beautiful. 

or less degree of concavity of which, beauty is in- 
creased or diminished. The nearer the profile ap- 
proaches to a straight line, the more majestic, and at 
the same time softer, does the countenance appear. 

There is a considerable distinction between pretti- 
ness and beauty. Beauty consists in the perfect har- 
mony and true proportions of each feature of the coun- 
tenance, while prettiness is something almost indefin- 
able that attracts the attention and charms the eye of 
the casual observer. 

The face is pronounced to be pretty in very much the 
same way as a picture may be praised and admired, al- 
though, from an art critic's point of view, it exhibits 
many ; imperfections. For instance, a clear complex- 
ion, bright, sparkling eyes, and a well-shaped nose, 
may go to make up a pretty face, notwithstanding 
the fact that the other features of the countenance are 
slightly out of proportion for the perfect harmony of 
beauty. 

Again, some pleasing permanent expression will fre- 
quently lend prettiness to a face, which otherwise would 
be considered plain. Indeed, prettiness in not a few 
faces is almost entirely centered in a bewitching smile, 
such as a good St Anthony could not withstand. In 
other faces, much of the prettiness that pleases the 



The Woman Beautiful. 23 

eye is due chiefly to the beauty of the hair, and the 
skillful way it has been adapted to suit the features. 

There are three distinctly marked ages of beauty in 
woman, each of which forms an important epoch in 
her life. 

The first age extends from birth to the period of 
puberty. This is a time when the face and form are 
undergoing their development, to burst forth in due 
course like a flower in the glory of maturity. 

The second period extends from the full growth 
of womanhood to the age, of, perhaps, forty. At the 
commencement of this time in her life, her neck in- 
creases in size, her voice assumes a different tone, her 
eyes grow brighter, and her beauty becomes more 
striking and attractive. 

In the third age, extending, as a rule, from forty 
to sixty, plumpness of the face and form invariably 
makes its appearance. The fat in the system being 
absorbed with less activity accumulates in the cellular 
tissue beneath the skin, and in other places of the body. 

This frequently effaces the wrinkles that have be- 
gun to furrow the skin, and restores once more the 
freshness, and sometimes almost the beauty of youth. 
The period is known as the "age of return." When 



24 The Woman Beautiful. 

this has passed away, beauty may be said to have 
fled forever. 

Some women preserve their beauty much longer 
than others. A modern writer says : "The physical 
beauty of women should last until they are past fifty. 
Nor does beauty reach its zenith under the age of 
thirty-five or forty." 

Helen of Troy conies on the stage at the age of forty. 

Aspasia was thirty-six when married to Pericles, 
and she was a brilliant figure thirty years afterward. 

Cleopatra was past thirty years when she met An- 
tony. 

Diane de Poictiers was thirty-six when she won the 
heart of Henry II. The king was half her age, but his 
devotion never changed. 

Anne of Austria was thirty-eight when described as 
the most beautiful woman in Europe. 



CHARACTER AND BEAUTY. 



However beautiful a face may be in form and fea- 
tures, it is the expression of the countenance that either 
makes or mars it, beautifies or disfigures it. 

We commence to fashion our own faces in the morn- 
ing of life; that budding time of youth when impres- 
sions more easily influence the character, and the mind 
more readily affects the countenance. 

By the time a woman reaches thirty, or sometimes 
even before that age, the facial expression has become 
almost permanent. It then requires much training of 
the mind, and persistent cultivation of new disposi- 
tions, to undo that work of many years ; that outward 
semblance of the inward soul. 

Pleasing expressions are generally acquired in youth. 
They are, so to speak, a concentration of many smiles, 
joyous thoughts, and contentments of mind. Each 
motion of the mind leaves behind some impression 
upon the lineaments of the countenance, not, however, 
at once observed, but continually repeated assume at 
last that habitual look portraying the character — beau- 
tiful or deformed. 



0.6 The Woman Beautiful. 

Dr. J. H. Kellogg- has eloquently written : "Beauty is 
not simply skin deep. Its real elements are based 
upon mental and moral qualities rather than mere 
physical traits. 

"A face cannot be beautiful which hides behind it a 
character devoid of worth. A beautiful character can- 
not be ugly in its external expression. 

"The face is so thoroughly a mirror of the mind, 
simply a reflection of the character, that the real beauty 
or ugliness of the latter cannot fail to appear as plainly 
as the handwriting upon the wall in ancient time, and 
no prophet is required to interpret its meaning." 

Winckelman, the German writer, says that perfect 
beauty can never exist in the countenance unless the 
mind be calm and free from all agitation, at least from 
everything likely to change and disturb the lineaments 
of which beauty is composed. 




Fig lire 3. 
To Strengthen and Beautify the Arms. 



TO TRANSFORM THE FACE. 



To transform the permanent expression of the coun- 
tenance appears at first sight to be bordering on the 
impossible; indeed, almost similar to the researches of 
those foolish philosophers in the Middle Ages who 
wasted their time and substance in endeavoring to dis- 
cover the elixir of life. 

However, upon close examination of the philosophy 
of facial transformation, we shall find it to be perfectly 
rational. 

The mind is the power that forms and transforms 
the expression of the countenance. Its mysterious in- 
fluence acts upon the soft, flexible parts of the face, as 
the action of light does upon the sensitive plate in 
photography. 

In reality the face is a picture of the habitual thought 
and tendency of the mind. 

Those, then, who desire beauty of countenance, 
should first examine themselves, and inquire into their 
usual train of thought or habit of mind, to discover 
what is productive of unpleasantness of expression, 
and what produces the most pleasing appearance, 



30 The Woman Beautiful. 

There are people with gloomy faces, the creation of 
gloomy thoughts, and the outcome of a gloomy mind. 
These melancholy folks always take a desponding view 
of everything that concerns this world; or, in other 
words, they draw down a blind over the window of the 
soul, shutting out the sunshine from their life. 

Such persons should exercise the utmost will-power 
in breaking off this habit (for it is but a habit). To 
create a bright, cheerful spirit may be a work of time, 
but when accomplished will result in a complete trans- 
formation of the countenance. 

Many are the disappointed faces to be seen in every 
crowd; men and women who have started in life with 
great ambitions that have never been realized, and 
every departed hope seems to have left behind a line 
upon the countenance. 

To eradicate these roots of bitterness may be diffi- 
cult, but not impossible. The best way is to bury the 
past with the work of to-day, forgetting the hopes of 
yesterday, in hoping for to-morrow. 

Then there are discontented faces, whose owners 
are always sighing for those things they do not pos- 
sess, and longing to do things they can never attain to. 
Let them try to more highly value their present sur- 



The Woman Beautiful. 31 

roundings, and to remember that "a contented mind 
is a continual feast." 

Of other faces, there are those that are sad and mel- 
ancholy, peevish and irritable, ungenerous and covet- 
ous, deceitful and crafty, scornful and proud. These 
unlovely traits, which are plainly shown upon the coun- 
tenance, are all the outcome of the mind. Where they 
exist, no true beauty can ever dwell. 

Washington Irving has well said that it is the divin- 
ity within which makes the divinity without. This is 
no mere philosophy, but one of the great secrets of 
beauty. Character ever illuminates a face with the 
essence of its attributes, be they beautiful or unlovely. 

To transform the face, you must first transform the 
mind. For sadness and melancholy, cultivate a spirit 
of joy and gladness; for peevishness and irritability, 
strive for amiability and good temper; and for ungen- 
erousness and covetousness, foster liberality and con- 
tentment. 



THE FOUNDATION OF BEAUTY. 



Health is indispensable to beauty; it is, indeed, its 
very foundation. When health is lost, beauty slowly 
disappears. 

Beauty should be the outcome of that glorious trin- 
ity of our being — a healthy soul, mind, and body. It 
will not then be lacking in that freshness which is es- 
sential to all true loveliness ; whether it be found in a 
rosebud or on a maiden's cheeks. There is such a 
thing as sickly beauty, which disappears with passing 
years. Lasting beauty must have its roots well down 
into health. 

Mr. Gladstone maintained that : "Beauty is not an 
accident of things; it pertains to their essence; it per- 
vades the whole range of creation; and wherever it is 
impaired or banished, we have in this fact the proof of 
the moral disorder which distracts the world." 

Grace of form, a fine complexion, and a sparkling 
eye, have generally more to do with an active liver and 
a good digestion than most people are aware of. 

Health is governed by the food we eat and assimi- 
late ; the air we breathe ; the rest and sleep we indulge 



The Woman Beautiful. 33 

in; and the due observance of hygienic laws. "Our 
bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are gar- 
deners," says England's immortal bard. 

"Health," writes Dr. T. L. Nichols, "is a condition 
of perfect development — the wholeness of the har- 
monious growth and adaptation of part to part, organ 
to organ, where none are stunted and none in excess. 
In this we have the perfection of symmetry and beauty, 
which are merely the result of wholeness or health. 
For it can be shown that the form and proportions of 
man and every animal which are the most useful are 
the most beautiful. When every bone is of the best 
form and size, there is perfect proportion ; when every 
muscle has its proper development, with just enough 
of fat in the cellular tissue, we have the highest beauty 
of form ; when the texture of the skin is finest, the cir- 
culation most vigorous, the blood most pure, we have 
the glow and charm of the finest complexion. Beauty 
is therefore more than a sign of health; it is its ex- 
pression ; and perfect beauty, can only come of perfect 
health. Partial beauty, fading beauty, decaying beauty 
there may be with partial, fading, decaying health ; but 
it is unsatisfactory and painful. The artist and poet 



34 The Woman Beautiful. 

imagine beauty glowing with health, and cannot sep- 
arate these ideals. No painter or sculptor would repre- 
sent a Venus, a Diana, a Hebe, other than as in the per- 
fection of health, and therefore beautiful and glow- 
ing with life." 



THE EFFECT OF EXERCISE. 



Apart from the beauty of the face, there is the beauty 
of the body, and this can be obtained by obeying one of 
the simplest of Nature's laws — namely, use every func- 
tion and power of the body. Unless this law be fol- 
lowed out no woman can ever be possessed of the per- 
fection of beauty of face and form. 

Exercise is the one thing that will bring the body 
to its full maturity. The schoolgirl in her play, skip- 
ping, running, jumping, is unconsciously developing 
those powers that are to serve her well in after life. 
It is true — though few admit it — that the girls who are 
now styled "tomboys," and who persist in indulging in 
every kind of sport, will develop into beautiful women 
in later years. 

This is not a coincidence simply, but is the working 
out of nature's law. Of course, it may sometimes 
happen that the girl who has played the part of "Miss 
Prim" at school acquires a delicate ethereal beauty; 
but such frail fairness is not to be desired, it means 
speedy decay. Better a thousand times the robust 
beauty that goes hand in hand with health. 



36 The Woman Beautiful. 

It must be borne in mind, however, that while plenty 
of recreation is excellent in the school days, the good 
work must not stop there. Exercise is just as neces- 
sary after twenty as before that age. 

The human body may be compared with a machine ; 
it will take many years before it wears out, but if it is 
allowed to become "rusty" a very short time will see 
its end. 

If the beauty and vigor of youth are to be retained 
through middle life a certain amount of regular exer- 
cise for every muscle in the body is absolutely essential. 

It is a well-known fact that, despite the wearing 
life of the theatre, a great many beautiful women of 
the stage retain their beauty long after they have bid- 
den good-by to the footlights. 

This is only possible where there has been a due re- 
gard for physical culture. The would-be stage beauty 
who fails to recognize the necessity for a regular course 
of physical training can never hope to acquire or re- 
tain that grace and suppleness which mean so much in 
their profession. 

As a matter of fact, many actresses have their own 
private gymnasiums, some are regular attendants at 
the classes in the new schools of physical culture which 
have been opened recently in our great cities, and a 




Figure 4. 

For Graceful Shoulders. 



The Woman Beautiful. 39 

still greater number believe in home muscle culture 
without apparatus; but one and all agree that exercise 
of some kind is just as essential as breakfast or dinner. 

The best kind of exercise is that which tends to 
strengthen and make supple the whole body. Run- 
ning, dancing, bending, twisting, hopping, skipping, 
swimming, and nearly all games — these are excellent, 
but in order that the entire system may be built up it is 
wise in addition to practice the exercises which will be 
described later on. 

They should be treated as a religious duty to be per- 
formed daily — it is only thus that one can attain to the 
full measure of strength and beauty that is within the 
reach of all. 

It is a lamentable fact that few know — or even care 
to know — the laws that govern their bodies, and will 
let disease gnaw — like a "canker in the bud" — until 
their very vitality is consumed through willful want 
of knowledge and indifference to learn the why and 
the wherefore; and allow absolute laziness to prevent 
them taking such physical training as will immensely 
improve their condition. 

Thus they hand down to a suffering generation their 
contracted chests, undeveloped limbs, and bent backs 
— a sure trap for lung and nervous disorders. Conse- 



40 The Woman Beautiful. 

quently, it behooves us all to take regular exercise if 
we would be strong and healthful and attain that sym- 
metry of form and healthy physical development which 
have from time immemorial been recognized as the 
perfect type of the "human form divine." 

The contraction of our muscles in what fairly 
amounts to exertion, in whatever shape we may choose 
to make it, attracts the blood into the muscles. Every 
act of contraction requires the presence of arterial 
blood, that is, of blood which has dissolved in it the 
oxygen of the air — this function of muscular fibre 
being dependent on the combination of oxygen with 
some of the elements of muscular tissue ; so that, to set 
the muscles contracting vigorously is to invite the blood 
into them, for they will not contract unless they are 
supplied with plenty of blood. 

And as the blood, after it has taken to the muscular 
tissue its supply of oxygen, becomes loaded with the 
result of the combination between the muscular sub- 
stance and the oxygen, there is a double necessity for 
the blood to be sent on through the lungs, in order to 
have its oxygen restored to it, and to get rid of the 
carbonic acid, with which the waste of the muscular 
substance, by use, has loaded the returning blood. 
Thus it is easy to see why exercise quickens the circula- 



The Woman Beautiful. 41 

tion and the breathing. The heart, unoppressed by 
having to drive an excess of blood through the lungs, 
and other central organs, responds at once to the de- 
mands of the muscular system; and the very contrac- 
tion of the muscles themselves, by pressing on the 
veins, in which the blood can only flow one way — 
namely, toward the heart — because of their valves, 
helps the heart to maintain the onward course of the 
blood, from which the following results take place : 
The central organs of the body, contained within the 
trunk, are relieved of superabundant blood, and the 
various processes which they are intended to effect are 
carried on with ease and perfection. A thousand aches 
and stitches, and feelings of local discomfort, which 
attend a state of congestion, disappear. The oppressed 
breathing, and sense of anxiety and lowness of spirits, 
which signify that the heart and lungs are overcharged 
with the circulating fluid, yield at once to this obvious 
and only true mode of relief. 

Stimulants would no longer be thought of by languid 
and lazy people, determined to see what it is that in- 
flicts upon them all the small horrors of an unoccupied 
and lounging existence. Let them equalize their circu- 
lation by a brisk walk, and low spirits, inaptitude for 
thought or exertion, pains in the chest, side, or back, 



42 The Woman Beautiful. 

will vanish. Alcohol, tea, and coffee will certainly 
give the heart a slight stimulus, and enable it for a 
short time to push along the blood a little better, but 
this is not Nature's way, and they are only making 
bad worse by relying on it. Their condition is simply 
one of ill-distributed blood, and there is no mode of 
getting this remedied but that of downright exertion 
of their muscles, by which the helpless organs, on which 
the reparation of the body depends, may be relieved 
from bearing the presence of more blood than they 
need. 

Half the complaints peculiar to women are produced 
by ignorance of this reason for exercise ; and they have, 
in fact, just so many additional motives for resisting 
that disposition to inactive life, which is unhappily 
their peculiar temptation, because their sphere of duties 
is contracted, and does not afford the same necessity 
for exertion to which most men are subjected. But 
there are many whose duties are confining and seden- 
tary, and who are rather to be pitied than blamed for 
the effects of an unequal circulation. The incessant 
toil of the seamstress cannot easily be healthily diversi- 
fied by general muscular exercise. Yet there are many 
people who seek relaxation by amusing change of oc- 
cupation, and with comparatively little effect, who 



The Woman Beautiful. 43 

would attain their object more completely by snatching 
one half-hour's sharp walk when it cannot be longer. 

Strenuous muscular exercise involves the purifica- 
tion of the blood, as far as that takes places in the func- 
tions of respiration; and it contributes to this result 
when it is taken in a well-ventilated room. It has been 
found that the rate of mortality among workgirls 
whose employments are both sedentary and confining, 
who pursue their accustomed labor in ill-ventilated 
rooms, is absolutely less when they are out of work, 
and therefore insufficiently fed, than when they are 
fully employed and in the receipt of good wages; 
though as a general fact the rate of mortality is greater 
in the populations whose means of subsistence in the 
shape of food are diminished; there is no way of ex- 
plaining this apparent discrepancy but this : When the 
workgirl is out of work she is out of the workroom. 
The greater supply of pure air stands her in the place 
of food. She gets oxygen, and gets rid of her used-up 
material. Her body is both better nourished by what 
she does eat, and better purified from the effects of that 
continual disintegration, which is the constant accom- 
paniment and condition of all our vital and animal 
functions. For not only does exercise give the lungs 
fair play, but inasmuch as it relieves all the other in- 



44 The Woman Beautiful. 

ternal organs of superabundant blood, it also places 
them in the most favorable condition to effect their sev- 
eral purposes. 

For instance, the liver is one of the most important 
organs of depuration — that is, part of its office is to 
.pour out into the intestinal tube, under the name of 
bile, a fluid which, in addition to the function it per- 
forms in digesting food, is Nature's aperient medicine, 
and also contains a great quantity of a substance that 
the system needs to be freed from. It is not intended 
to puzzle the reader by a long account of the much 
controverted chemistry of the liver. 

Suffice it to say, that it shares with the lungs in the 
office of removing from the blood the carbon which, 
after entering into the fabric of the body, has, in and 
by the functional activity of its organs, and especially 
of its muscles, been returned to the blood. It passes 
out from the lungs united with oxygen, as carbonic 
acid gas, and from the liver in another state of combin- 
ation, and in a fluid form. Now nothing contributes 
to set the liver at work so much as exercise. First, 
because exercise relieves the organ of superabundant 
blood ; and next, because the more exercise we give to 
our muscles, the greater are the products which require 
to be removed from the blood by its agency. 




Figure 5. 

For the Muscles of the Back. 



The Woman Beautiful. 47 

So that exercise is the best way to take medicine, for 
then Nature will undertake to effect for us the object 
so many seek to attain by digestive pills, family pills, 
and the whole host of both quack and regular contriv- 
ances for regulating the bowels, the necessity for which 
is the sign of a departure from health, and it is a 
laudable ambition to seek to be relieved from it. 

A healthy habit of body in this respect will, in nine 
cases out of ten, be the reward of resolute persever- 
ance in the habits of health, of which exercise is the 
chief. 



WHY WE GROW TIRED. 



In the human body the wastes which are formed by 
the breaking down of tissue act as muscle or tissue 
poison. The weariness experienced after severe ex- 
ertion is really due to the accumulation of the prod- 
ucts. 

If these wastes could be carried off as rapidly as 
formed, it would be impossible to get tired. In old 
age, on account of the inability of the eliminative or- 
gans to carry off wastes, there is usually a sensation 
of weariness on making the least exertion. 

The same is true in those afflicted with Bright's dis- 
ease; the elimination by means of the kidneys being de- 
fective, these wastes accumulate rapidly, and constant 
weariness is experienced. 

In the animal, as in man, these wastes are constantly 
forming, and life depends on their constant elimina- 
tion. There are two streams of blood in constant cir- 
culation, one carrying to the tissue life gathered from 
food, air, and water. 

The animal does not store up energy or life — it 
breaks it down. The dead products resulting from 



The Woman Beautiful. 49 

this tearing-down process necessitate a means by which 
they may be swept out of the system. 

This process of elimination is carried on by what is 
known as the venous circulation. One stream carries 
life— the other carries death. 

Muscles from the leg of a frog have been carefully 
dissected and to one end of the muscle a thread at- 
tached, to which a weight is suspended; upon stimu- 
lating the muscle by means of electrical currents it con- 
tracts and raises the weight. 

After several repetitions of this act the muscle no 
longer responds to the stimulation ; it is now really in a 
state of poisoning or fatigue. 

Tissue has been broken by exercise, but there being 
no means of elimination, the accumulated waste causes 
paralysis of the muscle. 

After carefully bathing this muscle in a mild saline 
solution, thus washing out the wastes, we find upon 
applying electricity that it contracts and lifts the weight 
as before. 

When practising the exercises suggested later a 
"tired feeling" may be experienced after twenty min- 
utes' work. This sign of fatigue is due to the ac- 
cumulation of wastes, but if the exercises are persisted 
in, the doors allowing the escape of these wastes will 



5° 



The Woman Beautiful, 



be thrown open by free perspiration and a feeling of 
well-being will take the place of the weariness, for the 
muscle poisons will then be eliminated almost as fast as 
normally formed. 

Do not be afraid of tiring the body with exercise — 
that is what we take it for, and provided we stop be- 
fore we are exhausted nothing but good results will 
tollow. 






Figure 6. 

A Non-resistance Exercise for the Back. 



FOR LARGE-FRAMED WOMEN. 



Some women who are naturally full-formed imagine 
that the over prominence of the bust or the hips means 
health and beauty, and that physical training is not 
needed in their case. How absurd this is ! A large 
frame does not necessarily denote either beauty or per- 
fection of health, many a huge framed person being 
ungainly in appearance and neither strong nor healthy, 
while a petite form may embody the perfection of grace 
and proportion, coupled with healthy vitality. 

Largely built persons are often clumsy and awkward 
in their movements through deficiency of physical cul- 
ture; they seem to be burdened with a perpetual con- 
sciousness of the possession of limbs, because they have 
never understood how to use or dispose of them with 
grace and ease. 

Beauty is a golden sceptre, exerting a powerful in- 
fluence for weal or woe. It has decided destinies, ruled 
nations, and controlled empires. 

To be beautiful we must respect the laws of health 
and exercise, by which media we arrive at beauty of 



54 The Woman Beautiful 

color — the glowing cheek, bright lips, sparkling eyes, 
clear skin and glossy hair. 

On the other hand, ill health, often the result of the 
disregard of the common laws of hygiene and the neg- 
lect of physical culture, will destroy the most promising 
beauty and induce the appearance of premature old 
age. 



KEEPING YOUNG BY EXERCISE. 



If there is one thing a woman dreads it is becoming 
old and ugly. 

Exercise delays old age by preventing fatty changes, 
while idleness engenders in the body an excess of fat. 
Nature, finding no use for this excess, deposits it in the 
blood vessels, muscles and other tissues, and by this 
means they undergo fatty degeneration. Activity uses 
up the waste matter and keeps off old age. Idleness is 
the greatest foe of longevity. 

A degeneration peculiar to advancing years is the 
process by which the blood vessels wither away, and 
thus carry off nutrition from the different organs and 
tissues of the body. 

This may be largely prevented by persistent exercise. 
When sufficient exercise is taken the blood is poured 
into the blood vessels in a torrent, and these capillaries 
and blood vessels, instead of contracting, are stretched 
to their fullest capacity and kept in activity. 

The most active men and the busiest live the longest. 

William Cullen Bryant at the age of eighty still 
practised regular exercises, one of which consisted of 



56 The Woman Beautiful. 

raising himself up and down on his toes from 300 to 
500 times. After some other exercises of a similar 
nature he took a twelve-mile walk. 

John Ericsson habitually worked from twelve to fif- 
teen hours a day, and then walked the streets from 10 
p. m. until midnight. 

Dr. Edward Palmer, of the Smithsonian Institute, 
states that there is a woman in California one hundred 
and forty years old whom he had seen carry on her 
shoulders six great watermelons done up in a blanket 
for over two miles. 

There are now living on the Island of Sappho, in the 
Mediterranean, three men aged respectively one hun- 
dred and fifteen, one hundred and nineteen and one 
hundred and twenty-six, who are obliged to earn their 
bread by manual labor. Thus they have had abun- 
dant means of prolonging their lives. Exercise only 
will insure a woman an active, healthy old age. 

Every one is familiar with the history of Russell 
Sage ; how from a barefoot country boy, he became the 
king of Wall street and retained his capacities for work 
long after he had passed the allotted threescore and 
ten. But what a great many people do not know is the 
fact that Mr. Sage attributed his success and longevity 




Figure 7. 
To Develope the Chest. 



The Woman Beautiful. 59 

largely to physical culture. When a newspaper man 
interviewed him, he had this to say on the subject : 

"The question of good health should be one easily 
answered. In my own case I think, beyond doubt, my 
excellent health as well as my comparatively long life 
is due entirely to the regular and simple life I have al- 
ways led.* 

"My personal opinion is that any one who possesses 
a normal constitution will enjoy good health if he will 
conduct his life on principles of moderation. No one 
who constantly defies natural laws can reasonably ex- 
pect to remain physically sound. 

"I am a great believer in exercise as a means of keep- 
ing the body in healthy condition. The average man 
or woman of to-day takes little or no outdoor exercise. 

"When I was younger I was out of doors a great 
deal and took delight in long walks. Even as recently 
as ten years ago I frequently walked from my office 
to my home. Now I find it not comfortable to do 
that. Even now, however, I walk a great deal more 
than many younger men. 

"I never think of riding when I have only a short 
distance to go, although I see many men get on a car 
or into a cab when they have only two or three blocks 



6o The Woman Beautiful. 

to travel. Such men do not have even the benefit short 
walks afford, and their health suffers in consequence." 
Mr. Sage did not hesitate to declare that his longev- 
ity, his continued health, his business success were de- 
pendent upon the good physical condition he succeeded 
in maintaining so many years by exercise and a care- 
ful attention to his body's needs. He believed in plain 
and wholesome food, plenty of exercise and plenty of 
sleep. 



THE BEST OF ALL MEDICINES. 



Without physical culture no woman can expect per- 
fect health. All the drugs ever invented cannot take 
the place of exercise. 

It is true that there are many people afflicted by dis- 
ease who are kept alive by the resources of medical 
science; but if these sufferers would only realize it, 
a simple course of physical training would render med- 
ical aid unnecessary. 

The ills that flesh is heir to are many, but by making 
the frame robust we can do a great deal to ward off 
disease. 

It has been said by more than one hygienist that a 
great city, on account of its perfect drainage, is more 
health)- than the uncared-for country village. 

As a fact, no rule can be laid down. It is possible 
for a village or isolated country residence to be a hot- 
bed of disease and a city may be close to the sea, like 
New York, and so possess one of the most valuable at- 
mospheric essentials, ozone, but it is not possible to 
make any general statement on the subject. 

But all are agreed that modern dietetic customs are 



62 The Woman Beautiful. 

on the side of ill health. Tea and coffee are partaken 
of far too freely; they contain principles that stimu- 
late the nervous system strongly. Over-indulgence 
has for consequences heart palpitation and indigestion. 

Our ancestors had to meet now and again great dan- 
gers, but we, for the greater part, are faced all day 
long by a host of petty worries. 

The rush for the cars, the overcrowding therein, the 
anxiety over errors of duty made in haste, the monot- 
ony of a life without details that interest — or, on the 
other hand, the wear and tear of social duties — -all 
strain and jar the nervous system. If it be weak by 
inheritance it may fail to such an extent that life be- 
comes a misery. 

Headache, sleeplessness, neuralgia, disordered func- 
tions, perished skin, and baldness follow fast. And 
often the woman of fifty, who should be in the full 
glory of beauty and strength, justifies the popular ex- 
pression : "A mere wreck." 

In such cases the aim must be to develop all the 
natural functions of the body. It would be possible to 
give such a sufferer a medicine that would make her 
feel as if she had cheated Time by twenty years. But 
the most probable after-consequence would be the pa- 
tient's increased reckless violation of the laws of life. 



The Woman Beautiful. 63 

No, the real medicine that the worn-out woman 
needs is physical culture. 

I do not for a moment minimize the beneficial action 
of drugs. But they are, so to speak, doles. They 
pauperize the patient when they only are used. 

A course of muscular exercises will render the pa- 
tient "self-supporting," so to speak, and if attention is 
also given to keeping the skin perfectly clean, the 
bowels regular, the sleeping rooms well ventilated, a 
new lease of life should be the result. 

The only way to keep disease away is to build up 
the system by physical exercises. Only thus will come 
the power to combat that tired feeling for the cure of 
which so many spring medicines are advertised and 
which comes most frequently — however paradoxical it 
may seem — to persons who do nothing but rest. 

Even in hot weather, vigorous exercise in proper 
amount and under right condition promotes the cool 
comfort of all animal kind, including man, by the 
elimination of waste matters that produce extraordi- 
nary heat if retained in the tissues. 

To overeat and lie around trying to keep cool by 
fanning, in hot weather, means failure ; it is promotive 
of disease and a bid for sickness. 



64 The Woman Beautiful. 

"Save All Steps Possible," is the heading of an item 
in an evening paper. 

"In all housework, and in other work as well, it is 
important that the movements follow each other with- 
out any loss of time, that the distance to move be as 
short as possible — in other words, the work must be 
close together. Learn to save all the steps possible, 
and to move the hands as short a distance as possible." 

In other words, instead of trying to get a fair de- 
gree of physical training out of your daily occupation, 
make the least possible exertion, that the muscular sys- 
tem may become dwarfed, or grow flabby and fat, and 
the body as a whole predisposed to diseases of all sorts. 

Take a look at a span of carriage horses and make a 
bit of study of condition : bodies like a gun-barrel, coats 
like velvet, eyes shining with health, nostrils clean as 
a maiden's lips; note the strength and suppleness of 
these healthy creatures, and the evident pleasure, even 
delight, manifest in the way they spring to their work. 

Then for a complete contrast, look at the occupants 
of the vehicle they are drawing; who, too often, are 
fat, soft, and ill-conditioned; they have saved their 
steps, but not their stomachs ; they are chronically 
tired, from overresting! 

The noble animals of which they are so fond they 




Figure 

For the Chest, Lungs, Arms and Shoulders. 



J 



The Woman Beautiful. 67 

feed on plain bread and water, the solid portion of this 
diet being measured with care, and they are given 
plenty of exercise, lest they become diseased like their 
owners from a violation of the laws of life. 

How stupidly absurd all this seems when we look at 
it rationally, and what a price they pay for their folly ! 

And what of those who do not ride in their own car- 
riages : most ladies on social or shopping errands will 
stand on the street corner till their backs ache, waiting 
for an electric car, into which they climb with difficulty 
and sit till their backs ache again and their legs become 
partially paralyzed, and on arriving downtown they 
toddle to the sidewalk and into the shops, where they 
practice the step-saving plan in every possible way, tak- 
ing the elevator for the upper floors, as if totally un- 
aware of the fact that stair climbing is the next best 
thing to hill climbing for making them strong, inside 
and out. 

What wonder that so many have weaknesses, as the 
term goes, and that we hear so much about "female 
diseases," and that so many women are subject to no 
end of humiliating disorders, mutilations, and all man- 
ner of nuisances ! "Female diseases," indeed ! Where 
else in the animal kingdom do we hear of this phrase, 
which is really a reproach to our civilization? 



68 



The Woman Beautiful. 



The Maud S's and Nancy Hanks' do not save their 
steps, live on made dishes, overeat, wear stays and take 
the elevator ; they get uphill by climbing, and with the 
added advantage of pulling a load up, too. Hence 
their exemption from "weaknesses !" Hence, also, the 
exemption of circus and ballet girls. When,, to their 
splendid all-around physical training thev add rational 
living habits, these performers reach old age in sound 
health. 



A SIMPLE MORNING EXERCISE. 



As to the question of how much exercise is required 
daily, no definite prescription can be given that will fit 
every case. Generally speaking, perhaps two or three 
half-hour turns of all-round exercise, each to the point 
of starting the perspiration, would suffice, provided the 
diet be held down correspondingly. 

Here are a few simple exercises that will keep the 
muscles in good condition and give grace and beauty 
to the movements of the body : 

When you awake in the morning lie in bed for five 
or ten minutes, extending the arms from side to side 
and exercising the entire body. 

Reach over your head and flex the limbs. You 
soon are thoroughly awake and ready for ten minutes 
or more of vigorous exercise on the floor. 

Don't jump out of bed in haste, but take your time, 
so as not to excite the heart. 

Open your window to its limit and take six or eight 
long, deep breaths, inhaling through the nostrils and 
exhaling with force through the mouth each time, hold- 
ing the breath long enough to count from ten to twen- 



70 The Woman Beautiful. 

ty-five, raising the chest and throwing the head and 
chest well back. 

In performing these exercises the proper position 
should be maintained, the body erect, head up, chin 
down, shoulders well back, chest inflated, abdomen 
drawn in and arms stretched. The arms must be kept 
straight, never bent at the elbow, and the legs also 
must be straight, holding the feet in an easy position. 

Some teachers lay great stress on the necessity for 
keeping the feet in a certain position, but this is of sec- 
ondary importance, unless one is in a class where per- 
fect harmony of motion is desired for the sake of ap- 
pearance. 



TO STRENGTHEN THE NECK. 



One of the best exercises for the neck, back and arms 
is illustrated by Figure i on page 13. 

Take position indicated, with right foot forward, 
body poised on the left foot, head swayed backward. 

Place the hands behind the head with the elbows to 
the front, and pull down with your hands against the 
back of the head, using the utmost force. 

This will greatly strengthen the muscles of the neck 
and back. 

Bend first slightly forward, then as far down as 
the waist line (see Figure 2, page 19). Execute the 
movements slowly, keeping the lungs well filled during 
the downward movement, but exhaling as the body re- 
sumes the upright position. 

Do not be afraid to use force in pulling down against 
the back of the head while counting from twenty to 
forty. 



HOW TO POSSESS BEAUTIFUL ARMS. 



A lady with thin arms and bony wrists presents a 
sorry, if not ridiculous spectacle in evening dress. 

Arms, to be beautiful in appearance, must also be 
strong in muscle. 

"Thin arms," says M. Charles Blanc, a renowned 
French authority on dress, "denote bad health and an 
enfeebled race." 

Exercise is the great essential for their proper de- 
velopment. 

An easy but very excellent exercise for strengthening 
and beautifying the arms is illustrated by Figure 3 on 
page 27. 

Assume position with arms at sides ; then half close 
the hands and bring them to the shoulders, then jerk 
them out smartly in front, on a line with the shoulders. 

Return the hands to the shoulders and continue the 
movement twenty times. 

A well-proportioned arm ought gradually to decrease 
in size from the shoulder to the wrist ; whilst the wrist 
should be slender, but without any appearance of boni- 
ness. 




Figure 9. 

For the Muscles of the Sides, Back, Shoulders and Legs. 



The Woman Beautiful. 75 

It is the practice among many fashionable ladies to 
have their arms "polished" before going to a ball. 

This polishing process consists of thoroughly rub- 
bing the skin with a mixture of glycerine and rose- 
water, and afterward covering it with cold cream, 
which is allowed to remain on for fifteen minutes, and 
then is rubbed off with a piece of soft white flannel. 

The arms are then covered with toilet powder, and 
again thoroughly rubbed. 

The treatment is said to greatly beautify the skin. 



FOR GRACEFUL SHOULDERS. 



On page 37, Figure 4, is shown a fine exercise for 
the shoulders as well as the sides of the body. 

Take position with the feet about twenty-four inches 
apart, with hands clinched and outstretched in front on 
a level with the chin. 

Now bring them slowly upward and slightly to the 
right, bending the upper part of the body in the same 
direction when the arms are over the head. 

Try to get the hands as far back of the head as pos- 
sible, but do not bend the legs. 

Return to first position and sway the body to the 
left, alternating the movements and continuing twenty 
times. 



THE MUSCLES OF THE BACK. 



To strengthen the back a resisting exercise is neces- 
sary, and one is illustrated by Figure 5 on page 45. 
In executing the movement make the resistance against 
the motion sufficiently strong to tire the muscles in use. 

Assuming upright position, heels together, toes 
turned outward, hands by the sides, bend the limbs 
slightly and interlace the fingers under the knees. Now 
straighten the body as much as you can. 

It is not possible to make much movement, but the at- 
tempt made to strengthen the body and limbs will 
greatly strengthen the muscles in the small of the back. 

Continue the exercise fifteen times by bending down 
slightly as in Figure 5 and then making the endeavor 
to straighten up. 

A warning is necessary for those with very weak 
backs : the exercise will undoubtedly do them good, but 
they must be careful at first not to make the action too 
vigorous until a measure of strength has been estab- 
lished. 

A non-resistance exercise for the back is illustrated 
by Figure 6 on page 51. 



78 



The Woman Beautiful. 



From upright position with heels together, hands 
by the sides, stretch the arms straight out from the 
body, bending the upper part of the body forward, but 
keeping the legs straight. 



TO DEVELOP THE CHEST. 



Figure 7, page 57, illustrates the first movement in 
an exercise for developing the chest, lungs, arms, and 
shoulders. 

With heels together and body erect, elevate the 
hands high above the head, keeping the arms straight 
and trying to extend them a foot higher than the 
natural reach without raising the heels from the 
ground. 

Continue extending until the contraction of the 
muscles in the body and limbs is plainly felt. Fill the 
lungs with air, keeping the abdomen drawn in. 

Now bring the arms forward with a rotary move- 
ment and swing them vigorously as far as possible to 
the rear, clasping the hands at the completion of the 
movement (see Figure 8, page 65). 

Do not let the arms merely fall from the first posi- 
tion, but put all your strength into the motion, as if 
you were pulling at a weight attached to the ceiling. 

The body may be swayed slightly forward with the 
rearward swing. As the arms become level with the 



8o 



The Woman Beautiful. 



chin quicken the movement so as to force the hands 
well behind the body, at the same time expelling all the 
air from the lungs. Repeat the exercise thirty times, 
remembering to breathe as indicated with each move- 
ment. 




Figure 10. 

An Excellent Resisting Exercise. 



FOR THE SIDES. 



The muscles at the sides of the body must not be 
neglected and the exercise illustrated by Figure 9 on 
page 73 will not only bring into play the muscles of the 
sides, but also those of the back, shoulders and legs. 

Take a position with the feet slightly apart, the arms 
at the sides. 

Make a long step to the right and drop the right 
hand to the floor, stretching the arm out to its fullest 
extent. 

Return to original position and step out with the left 
foot, dropping left hand to the floor. 

Continue the alternate movements fifteen times. 



TO ACQUIRE SHAPELY LIMBS. 



Here is an excellent resisting exercise which will 
benefit the legs and the back. 

Take sitting position on floor, the hands tightly 
clasping the legs above the knees (Figure 10, page 81). 

Now bend the head forward and curve the back so 
as to facilitate the next movement. Bring the head 
and trunk back strongly and swing the body to the 
rear till the back and head rests on the floor. (See 
Figure n, page 87). 

Retain a firm grip on the legs with the hands and 
keep the hips rigid throughout. 

Repeat the exercise fifteen times. 

One or two non-resisting exercises for the lower 
limbs should also be practiced. 

Assume position with feet slightly apart, with the 
backs of the hands placed lightly on the waist line. 

Thrust out the right foot as far as possible, only 
slightly bending the knee, as on page 95, Figure 12. 
The body should be carefully poised on the left foot 
before the movement is made. 



The Woman Beautiful. 85 

This exercise, in addition to strengthening the legs, 
adds grace to the whole body if carefully performed. 

Repeat the exercise slowly six times, keeping the 
weight on the left foot, then change the position and 
thrust out the left foot, transferring the weight of the 
body to the right. 

Now change the position of the hands ana grasp the 
waist firmly with the palms. 

With the body poised on the left foot raise the right 
knee as high as possible, keeping the lower part of the 
leg straight and rigid (see Figure 13, page 101). 

Bring the right leg to the floor, transfer the weight 
of the body to it and raise the left leg, continuing the 
alternate motion twenty times. 

A good combined exercise for the legs and arms is 
illustrated on page 113, Figure 14. 

Take sitting position with the hands at the shoulders, 
the weight of the body resting on the toes. Thrust the 
arms sharply out on either side as in the illustration, 
then bring the hands back to the shoulders. 

At first this will seem a very difficult movement, but 
after a little practice it will become easier and its good 
effects will soon become apparent. 



86 



The Woman Beautiful, 



The ankles can be strengthened by swinging one leg 
in front of the other as in Figure 15, page 119. 

Try to make the swing as long as possible. The leg 
on which the body is poised must be kept rigid, the 
other may be slightly — but only slightly — bent at the 
knee. 



FOR ALL THE MUSCLES. 



There are very few exercises in which none of the 
muscles are dormant. 

The following has the merit of exercising the entire 
body and should never be omitted by the woman who 
wishes to reap the fullest benefits from physical culture. 

Take position with heels together, toes turned out- 
ward, arms at the sides. 

Shut the hands tightly and bring them with a quick 
action to the shoulders, as in Figure 16, page 127. 

Thrust the hand upward to the fullest extent, keep- 
ing the legs rigid (see Figure 17, page 141). 

Now turn the body slightly and step out briskly with 
the right foot, keeping the arms in the same position 
over the head as in Figure 18, page 153. 

Then bend the body and bring the hands to the floor. 

Straighten the body, step back to first position, lower 
the hands to the sides and repeat the movements by 
stepping forward with the left foot. 

The exercise may be continued twenty times or more. 



THE HEART'S ACTION. 



It is difficult to get any one to believe that poising 
the body on the hands is beneficial in any way; but 
the truth is that this is actually one of the best forms 
of physical exercise in which you can indulge. 

It strengthens every section of the body, particularly 
the heart. It changes the circulation, making the blood 
fill part of the venous system, which is not generally 
done by ordinary exercise. 

The position illustrated on page 161, Figure 19, 
seems at first sight very difficult and almost impossible 
of achievement, but after a few trials it becomes quite 
simple. 

To begin, it is better to stand back to a wall, then 
bend the body and bring the palms to the floor in front. 

Now gradually raise the feet upwards, bringing the 
hands nearer the wall as the feet are raised. 

In the first trial probably only a few steps upward 
can be taken; but by perseverance the position illus- 
trated can be attained. After counting fifteen, drop 
the feet to the floor and repeat. 



A GRACEFUL FIGURE. 



A splendid exercise for giving grace and beauty to 
the figure is illustrated on page 171, Figure 20. Here 
many idle or infrequently-used muscles are brought 
into play and can be easily developed if persisted in, 
thus rendering the body lithe and supple. 

Assume position with heels together, arms by the 
sides, head well back, chest thrown forward. 

Make a step in front with the right foot, at the same 
time bringing the left hand to the waist and throwing 
the right hand in a curve over the head, swaying the 
upper part of the body slightly backward with the 
movement so that the weight will come on the left foot. 

Bring the feet together and the hands to the sides 
and make a step forward, this time with the left foot, 
bringing the left hand over the head, returning to first 
position. 

Continue the alternate movements twenty times. 

Another exercise for grace and strength of the arms 
is illustrated by Figure 21, page 181. 

Take position as in preceding exercise, with heels 
together, hands at the sides. 



92 The Woman Beautiful. 

Now make a firm step forward as before and throw 
the right arm upward and to the left, bending the 
hand downward at the wrist. At the same time bring 
the left hand from the side in a graceful sweep upward 
to meet the right, bending the arm at the elbow. 

Drop the hands to the sides and repeat the movement 
twelve times. 

This is a valuable exercise for developing idle 
muscles and will give to the form a subtle beauty that 
will repay the time devoted to it. 



BREATHING FOR BEAUTY. 



One of the ways by which the body may be developed 
and made beautiful is by correct breathing. 

The importance of plenty of fresh air, with its due 
proportion of life-giving oxygen, must therefore be 
obvious to all. 

We do not need it at certain intervals only, like our 
daily food, but at every moment, both day and night. 
For example, a walk in the fresh air during the after- 
noon is of little use if we sit all the evening in a close, 
unventilated apartment, or sleep at night under similar 
conditions. 

Oxygen, which is the chief sustaining element in air, 
forms one-fifth of the whole of the earth's atmosphere, 
the other four-fifths being nitrogen. 

Without oxygen no animal or vegetable life can 
exist: therefore, it is, so to speak, the very breath of 
life. By every inhalation of the lungs, the precious 
oxygen revivifies the blood, assists all its acts of nutri- 
tion, and helps it to remove old tissues and build up the 
new. 

Another important work performed by oxygen is the 



94 



The Woman Beautiful. 



generation of animal heat. This is accomplished by 
its slow process of combustion with the carbon con- 
tained in the blood and tissues of our bodies. The 
phenomenon of life is, after all, nothing more or less 
than a constant tire burning within us, the fuel being 
the oxygen gas we inhale and the food we digest. 

Some one has wisely said: "By the air — in repose, 
the atmosphere; in movement, the wind — we live and 
move and have our being. The air is the great phy- 
sician of the world. Health confides in it as its most 
faithful friend. The weak it invigorates, the weary it 
refreshes." 

Atmospheric air in a pure state is composed of nitro- 
gen, oxygen, and a very small portion of carbonic acid 



Air once breathed has been denuded of the chief part 
of its oxygen, and requires a proportionate increase of 
carbonic acid gas. 

It is, therefore, necessary for good health that we 
should breathe the same air only once. To fulfill such 
a condition, rooms, of course, must be ventilated. It 
is the inhalation of carbonic acid gas that causes head- 
aches, sleepless nights, consumption, typhus fever, and 
other diseases. 

"In a closed sleeping apartment," says Dr. W. W. 




Figure 12. 

A Non-resistance Exercise for the Lower Limbs. 



The Woman Beautiful. 97 

Hall, "the atmosphere becomes more contaminated 
every minute, because carbonic acid gas, a deadly poi- 
son, is generated in the lungs, and is expired at each 
breath, and combining with moisture, it is heavier than 
the common air, and settles near the floor; hence the 
last thing a man should sell is his bedstead; but, in 
reality, it is considered by the ignorant and unfortu- 
nate poor as the most dispensable thing in the house, 
hence sickness is soon added to their poverty, a most 
unhappy combination. 

The effect of breathing air into which the products 
of gas combustion have passed, is, says Dr. J. Lane 
Notter, in his treatise on "Air," to be seen in workmen 
who are obliged, from the darkness of their shops, to 
burn gas during a large part of the day. Bronchial af- 
fections are common, and in proportion to the amount 
of contamination of the air, they suffer from headache, 
drowsiness, and oppression. Another example of the 
injurious effects produced by gas may be inferred from 
the fact that in a large savings bank, where 1,200 per- 
sons were employed, the introduction of the electric 
light in the place of gas so far reduced the absences 
from illness that the extra labor gained paid for the 
electric light. 

Dr. A. Ransome, in his lecture on "Pure Air," states 



98 The Woman Beautiful. 

his opinion that a very large number of the diseases of 
the respiratory organs are clue far more to imperfect 
protection of the general surface of the body, and to im- 
purities in the air breathed, rather than to the direct 
influence of cold air in the air passages of the lungs. 
What are commonly called "colds'' are often caught 
from inhaling the vitiated atmosphere of crowded 
rooms, or are the result of some derangement of the 
circulation of the blood, either from feebleness of its 
current in some part of the body, or from cold being 
unequally applied to the surface. When people are 
well clothed, and when, by active exercise, the blood is 
sent vigorously through the frame, and the air 
breathed is the pure air of the open country, it is very 
seldom indeed that any harm results from breathing it. 

One of the secrets of health and long life is to 
breathe through the nose. It is the greatest preventa- 
tive against infectious diseases. 

The nostrils are supplied with membranes, which act 
as a filter in preventing the grosser impurities con- 
tained in the air from passing into the lungs. 

Breathing through the nose also confers upon us 
the additional benefit of warming the air in winter and 
moistening it in summer, so that we can enjoy almost 
the same climate all the vear round. 



The Woman Beautiful. 99 

This is, indeed, a wonderful provision of Provi- 
dence; but how few avail themselves of it. 

Persons who make it a habit to always breathe 
through the nose, suffer far less than others from 
colds, sore throats, and chest complaints. 

It is stated that "when God created man, He 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," and this 
method of breathing cannot be improved upon. 

George Catlin, the noted artist, wrote a little book 
in which he says no person on earth who had waked 
from a fit of nightmare will dispute the fact that when 
consciousness came he found his mouth and throat 
wide open and parched with dryness and fever. No 
man in existence ever had a fit of the nightmare while 
sleeping with his mouth closed. 

It is a fair inference, therefore, that sleeping with 
the mouth open is the cause of that frightful and 
though not generally supposed, deadly disease — I say 
deadly, because every attack of the nightmare, I pro- 
claim, is the beginning of death. 

A man in a fit of nightmare is dying. In the repose 
of his system, when respiration is necessarily feeble, 
the overdraught of air into the sleeping lungs, 
through the open mouth, surpasses the feeble exhala- 
tions, producing irritation and fever, until suffocation 

LofC. 



ioo The Woman Beautiful. 

takes place, causing the malady in question; and his 
sensation of hindrance is caused by the hindrance to 
free respiration. 

His dreamy recollections of the seeming beginning 
of a new and strange existence appear to him to have 
passed over a long time, though the spasm lasted but a 
minute or a minute and a half; and in most cases if it 
had lasted a few minutes longer death would have been 
the consequence. 

From this it will be seen how important it is that we 
breathe through the nose. 

But not less important is it to remember to breathe 
deeply. Comparatively few people practice diaphram- 
atic breathing. Too frequently when a breath is taken 
the upper chest only is expanded, and this means that 
the lower part of the lungs is not used. 

In proper breathing the entire abdominal region 
should move outward and inward at every breath. 
Figure 22, page 195, shows how to breathe correctly. 

Place one foot slightly in advance of the other. 
Raise the arms over the head, joining the hands at the 
back. Now take a deep breath, letting the air fill the 
entire lung area, at the same time expanding at the 
waist line with each inhalation. 




Figure 13. 

To Acquire Strong, Shapely Limbs. 



The Woman Beautiful. 103 

The upper chest breathing is responsible for much 
of the constipation and indigestion that afflicts us. 
The entire abdominal region is neglected and allowed 
to deteriorate. In diaphramatic breathing the organs 
below the diaphram are properly exercised and good 
health is the result. 

If one has been acustomed to breathe by expanding 
the upper chest, some pains will have to be taken to 
cultivate the habit of diaphramatic breathing. 

An excellent exercise for this purpose is illustrated 
on page 205, Figure 23. 

Standing in an easy position with the heels together 
and hands by the sides, draw a deep breath and while 
doing so force the abdomen outward. Retain the 
breath for a few seconds, then bring the hands to just 
below the waist line so that the finger tips will meet in 
front, and press the adbomen inward, at the same time 
expelling all the air (see Figure 24, page 215). 

Drop the hands to the sides and repeat thirty times. 
After a little practice you will not need to force in 
the abdomen with the hands. The internal muscles 
will do the work. 

It must be remembered that the diaphramatic breath- 
ing is to be adopted not only during this particular ex- 



104 



The Woman Beautiful. 



ercise, but should be used throughout the day. The 
object of the exercise is to make -deep breathing a 
habit, and when this result is obtained there will be an 
end to the upper chest breathing, save when exercising 
vigorously. 



WHEN TO REST. 



There is a time to exercise and a time to rest. It 
is an excellent thing to rest for a few minutes after 
the daily lesson in physical culture. There should be 
no eating immediately afterward; you can rest just as 
well if you sit down to a meal. The woman who 
wearies herself with overwork or exercise, and then 
proceeds to eat heartily, is in a fair way to invite an at- 
tack of acute indigestion. 

One of the greatest troubles that business women 
have comes directly from this indiscretion. Wearied 
out with the strain of the day's duties, they sit down 
immediately to a hearty meal. It is a common idea 
that a good meal when one is tired will revive the 
drooping spirits and make her feel better. Possibly 
during the progress of the early part of the meal she 
will feel better, for the mere act of eating when one is 
hungry is bound to stimulate the brain and mind. 

But the body is thoroughly tired out and the stom- 
ach suffers from the general low condition of the 
physical energies. That organ is suddenly called upon 



106 The Woman Beautiful. 

to do a work that is difficult, and in many cases it ends 
in acute or chronic indigestion. 

If one is only slightly tired, probably the hearty 
meal will not cause trouble. But even in this case 
it is much better to rest after the day's hard work if 
one feels at all wearied. 

A few moments stretched at full length on a bed, 
with closed eyes and muscles relaxed, will give the 
whole system a chance to recover itself, and the stom- 
ach, relieved with the rest of the body, will soon gain 
its normal condition. This rest just before eating 
is an excellent plan for all women. 

The value of a liquid under certain conditions is 
not generally appreciated. Take the hard bicycle rider 
and follow him through his course of training and 
progress in a trip across country. If he indulges in 
heavy dinners or meals immediately after a hard day's 
ride he will soon be compelled to abandon the trip. 

On the other hand, a hard rider can perform tre- 
mendous exertions ten hours a day on a careful diet in 
which liquids occupy the chief place on the bill of fare. 
For refreshments on the way nothing is taken but milk. 

The woman suffering from nervous dyspepsia and 
kindred disorders needs, probably, more than anything 



The Woman Beautiful. 107 

else, new tone and strength to the whole system. How 
best to accomplish this is oftentimes a problem that a 
physician must meet in different ways. A course of 
physical training such as has been suggested is the best 
cure, and if prescribed and followed intelligently it 
works wonders. 

But there is another point that cannot be overlooked, 
and in nine cases out of ten it is the rock on which most 
of the dyspeptics get wrecked. They think exercise is 
going to cure them and they pay no heed whatever to 
their diet. The result is often disastrous. The stom- 
ach is in a weak, nervous state, ready to respond to the 
slightest abuse. 

The hope of recovery for a dyspeptic is to look upon 
her diet as important as her exercise. The latter will 
undoubtedly stimulate an appetite, but to eat all we 
want whenever hungry is not the sure way to build 
up health. 

In ordinary healthy condition one might follow 
Nature's inclination and eat heartily whenever hunger 
demanded it. But we are dealing with a chronic dys- 
peptic, whose nerves have as much to do in causing his 
disorder as his stomach. 

Let that patient get a little overtired and then re- 



io8 The Woman Beautiful. 

turn to the house and eat a breakfast or dinner, and 
nerves and stomach will combine to make life miser- 
able, and counteract all the good obtained. The only- 
safe rule to follow is to take the exercise to the point 
of weariness and then rest. 



THE SCIENCE OF EATING. 



In the quest of health and beauty we must not neg- 
lect to give the food we eat due consideration. Mr. 
Gladstone, the great English commoner, used to say 
that he never swallowed a piece of meat without chew- 
ing it thirty-three times. He attributed his strength 
and health to this habit, coupled with the outdoor physi- 
cal exercise which always formed a part of his daily 
life. One cannot overestimate the need for a good 
digestion as an aid to health, beauty, and happiness. 

"The longer I live," says Sidney Smith, in his hu- 
morous account of the importance of diet to mankkind, 
"the more I am convinced that half the unhappiness of 
mankind arises from little stoppages, from a duct 
choked up, from food pressing in the wrong place, 
from a vexed duodenum or an agitated pylorus. The 
deception as practiced upon human creatures is curious 
and entertaining. My friend sups late; he eats some 
strong soup ; then a lobster ; then some tart ; and he 
dilutes these excellent varieties with wine. The next 
day I call upon him. He is going to sell his house in 
London and retire to the country. He is alarmed for 



no The Woman Beautiful. 

his eldest daughter's health. His expenses are hourly 
increasing, and nothing but a timely retreat can save 
him from ruin. All this is the lobster ; and when over- 
excited nature has had time to manage this testaceous 
encumbrance, the daughter recovers, the finances are 
in good order, and every rural idea effectually excluded 
from the mind. In the same manner old friendships 
are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat 
has led to suicide. Unpleasant feelings of the body 
produce correspondent sensations of the mind, and a 
great scene of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel 
of indigestible and misguided food." 

Although we may laugh at the humor of our whim- 
sical friend, yet there is a great deal of truth in his 
remarks concerning diet. 

The selection of suitable food is a matter of the ut- 
most importance to the health of our bodies. "I have 
come to the conclusion," says Sir H. Thompson, the 
eminent surgeon, "that a proportion amounting at least 
to more than one-half of the disease which embitters 
the middle and latter portion of life among the middle 
and upper classes of the population is due to avoidable 
errors of diet, for many disappointing, unhappy, and 
profitless term of painful enduring, for not a few it 
shortens life considerablv." 






The Woman Beautiful. in 

What does a health-preserving diet consist of? 
There are, so to speak, various "schools of diet." For 
instance, that of vegetarianism, where animal food is 
entirely abstained from; and another in which starchy 
foods are abandoned, and bread is looked upon as the 
staff of death, instead of the staff of life. 

Such dietetic systems may be suited for certain con- 
stitutions, but no such rules can be laid down for a 
guidance for all. After exhaustive investigations, the 
conclusion has been reached that a strictly moderate 
mixed diet is the best for the generality of mankind. 

Animal food should take a secondary place in our 
daily diet, and not more than a quarter of a pound 
be eaten in a day. 

Fruits and vegetables should form an important part 
in the midday meal, and the former aliments should 
also be eaten at other meals in place of jam, cake, etc. 

In regard to starchy foods, including bread, they 

should be eaten in great moderation as we advance in 

life. The earthy matters they contain, which go to 

build up the bones in young people, clog up the tissues 

of the old, and tend to produce decay. 

In no branch of science has there been more misun- 

< 

derstanding than in the study of cereals. . Cereals are 
ripened grains and are eaten in the form of flour, meal, 



H2 The Woman Beautiful. 

and breakfast food ; and they are the only food that 
does not decay upon exposure to the air. 

In recent excavations in Pompeii and in some of the 
ruins of Egypt, wheat has been found in excellent 
state of preservation. This shows that it is man's best 
food. 

Wheat, corn, rice, rye, barley, oats and buckwheat 
may all be used in numberless ways. But the following 
facts should be observed in reducing them to flour or 
breakfast foods : 

Wheat contains three very important parts, the 
germ, the starch and the six coats. Any one of these 
parts is not so useful when taken separate as the en- 
tire grain. The germ alone soon deranges the liver. 
The starch is the white part of wheat and makes the 
finest and whitest bread, but will quickly upset the di- 
gestion unless some other cereal be added in small 
quantities. The starches of different cereals, such as 
rye and white flour, make an excellent combination. 
Wheat bran is indigestible, but if cooked in water 
yields great value. 

Bran water, flavored with lemon, makes an excellent 
drink. The bran itself should never enter the stom- 
ach. 

Graham flour consists of whole wheat with all the 



|T 




Figure 14. 

For the Legs and Arms. 



The Woman Beautiful. 115 

bran coats ground in with it. It is unfit for food; al- 
though many people, who are under the impression that 
because a thing is disagreeable it must necessarily be 
beneficial, recommend it as an ideal diet. 

Most whole wheat flour, so called, makes soggy 
bread, and anything soggy is hurtful to the stomach, 
since it is difficult to mix with the bulk of food, caus- 
ing it to remain in the stomach more than two hours. 
The result is delayed digestion, a condition which 
causes gases, flatulency and acidity. 

Bread can be .made from any cereal, but the best is 
made from wheat ; the next best from rye. Wheat 
bread properly made and from perfect flour, which is 
made from the starch and inner coat of the grain, 
never tires the stomach, and can be eaten at every meal. 

Most wheat is injured in the grinding, and even 
when well ground, is not always properly baked. 
Fresh bread, on account of its containing much of the 
ferment of yeast, holds a large amount of carbon di- 
oxide, but after it has been baked a few hours the gas 
escapes. Toasting drives out the gas, and no food is 
more wholesome and nourishing than new bread 
toasted. 

On the other hand animal food must be taken very 



n6 The Woman Beautiful. 

sparingly indeed if there is to be any chance for a 
long life. 

''The more slowly man grows," says Huf eland, the 
German physiologist, "the later he attains to maturity, 
and the longer all his powers are in expanding, the 
longer will be the duration of his life ; as the existence 
of a creature is lengthened in proportion to the time 
required for expansion. Everything, therefore, that 
hastens total consumption, shortens life; and, conse- 
quently, the more intensive the vital action, the shorter 
the life. If you would live long, live moderately, and 
avoid a stimulating, heating diet." 

Graham, in his "Lectures," declares that every phy- 
siologist must admit that flesh is of a more stimulat- 
ing and more rapid pulse, a hotter skin — hastens all the 
vital functions of the body — causes a greater exhaus- 
tion of the vital powers of the organs, and wears out 
the human constitution considerably faster than a 
proper vegetable diet. 

Hence, great longevity is never found among those 
tribes and portions of the human family who subsist 
principally on flesh meat. The Patagonians, with a 
climate and almost every other circumstance, except 
their diet, exceedingly favorable to longevity, rarely 
attain to seventy years of age; and the average dura- 



The Woman Beautiful. 117 

tion of life is greater with them than with any other 
flesh-eating tribe or nation. 

The process by which food is converted into nutri- 
ment for the sustenance of the body is one of the many 
wonders of our being. 

Digestion commences in the mouth, where the food 
is divided by the action of the teeth and mixed with 
saliva. This fluid appears to be of great importance in 
preparing the food for the further changes it has to 
undergo. It is secreted by three pairs of glands, sit- 
uated at some little distance from the cavity of the 
mouth, and which are connected with it by ducts or 
hollow tubes. 

After the food has been well chewed the tongue rolls 
it up and passes it on into the cesophagus, or gullet, 
through which it is conveyed into the stomach. 

The stomach, as most persons are aware, is a kind 
of a bag or pouch capable of considerable distension. 
Its mucous membrane is covered by thousands of 
glands, which secrete an acid substance, known as gas- 
tric juice. This, when poured out at the period of 
digestion, dissolves the food, and reduces it to a 
creamy-whitish liquid, called chyme. 

The process, however, is greatly aided by the mus- 
cular action of the stomach, which keeps the food con- 



n8 The Woman Beautiful. 

stantly moving to and fro, and thus bringing every 
particle of it successively into cantact with the solvent 
fluid. 

After a while the stomach contracts, and forces the 
food (now converted into chyme) on into the duo- 
denum, the first portion of the intestines, where it 
mixes with the bile from the liver and the pancreas 
juice. 

The food then passes along the small intestines, 
which are some twenty feet in length, urged by a worm- 
like muscular contraction. All the aliment that is ready 
for absorption is now taken up and passed on to the 
blood, while the waste matter is rejected and gradually 
forced along into the great intestines, to be ultimately 
cast out of the body. 

Good digestion, and consequently good health and 
beauty, greatly depend upon the way we masticate our 
food. 

People who "bolt" their meals are generally lean 
and haggard specimens of humanity, and frequently 
suffer from dyspepsia. 

The proper mode of eating is to let each morsel of 
food remain in the mouth until it is thoroughly chewed 
and mixed with saliva. 

It is most necessary that even the softest food, such 




Figure 15. 

To Strengthen the Ankles. 



The Woman Beautiful. 121 

as oatmeal, should not be swallowed until it has come 
well in contact with the digestive juice of the mouth, 
which can only be accomplished by proper mastication. 

The longer the food stays in the mouth the shorter 
time it stays in the stomach. A woman may eat any- 
thing and still be happy if she will only take time to 
chew. The stomach is not furnished with teeth, and 
when we ask it to do the work of the mouth, as well 
as its own duty, be assured that it will avenge its 
wrongs some day as slyly as does the slave. More peo- 
ple eat themselves to death than starve themselves to 
death. The poor man knows little of indigestion and 
dyspepsia. He may have an occasional twinge of 
hunger, but never knows the sickness of satiety. 

Every particle of the body is made of the food which 
is taken into it, so it can be no better than the ma- 
terial of which it is made. Since the body is un- 
dergoing a complete change of this material con- 
stantly, in every part, it must be true that a better 
body can be built by the use of better material, and it 
is equally true that no human being was created to 
become the victim of disease. 

"Never eat without an appetite" is a simple physio- 
logical maxim that all who value their health would do 
well to follow. It is far better to forego a usual meal 



122 The Woman Beautiful. 

than to eat one when the stomach has no relish for 
the food. 

Another great mistake is to eat between meals, as 
many persons are in the habit of doing. The stomach 
needs a certain amount of rest, and cannot work con- 
tinually without some evil consequences arising. 

The interval between every meal, to insure vigorous 
digestion and good health, should rightly be not less 
than five hours. 

Supper, if indulged in, ought not to be taken within 
three hours of retiring to rest. People, however, 
would be far healthier if they made it a habit of life to 
only partake of three meals a day — breakfast, lunch- 
eon and dinner. 

It is well to remember that it is not the quantity of 
food we eat that tends to build up and beautify the 
body, but what is properly digested and assimilated. 



TO ACQUIRE AN APPETITE. 



While it is not judicious to eat unless the body de- 
mands it, there are many ways by which an appetite 
can be acquired. Those persons who have no relish 
for their food are never of a cheerful and contented 
disposition, but generally become melancholy, morose 
and pessimistic. 

To permanently secure a good appetite there must 
be a regular time for meals. People who have no 
system in their eating, and sit down to dinner, say, one 
day at twelve o'clock, and another day at two, will 
never be permanently in possession of a good, hearty 
appetite. 

It is the same, for example, with sleep; if a woman 
has no regular hours for repose, but retires to bed at 
any time to suit her convenience, it will become im- 
possible for her to insure a good night's rest. Nature 
hates irregularity, and will ever rebel against it. 

Another rule to be followed by those desiring to se- 
cure a good appetite is never to eat or drink anything 
between meals. Many persons spoil their appetite for 



124 The Woman Beautiful. 

dinner by nibbling a few biscuits, whilst others destroy 
it with a glass of wine or beer. 

The mind exerts a considerable influence upon the 
appetite and digestion, as many persons may know 
from practical experience. It is possible for a good ap- 
petite to be almost instantly taken away by some dis- 
turbance of the mind, caused, for example, by a piece 
of bad news conveyed in a letter, a sudden outburst of 
temper, the witnessing of a serious accident, or some 
similar occurrences. 

People who are constantly worrying about every 
little thing and never know what it is to enjoy a con- 
tented frame of mind, relish their food far less than 
those of the sanguine temperament, besides failing to 
assimilate as much nutriment from it. This is one of 
the reasons why persons who worry are always thin. 

"Experience," says Dr. Combe, "must have taught 
every one with what zest we sit down to enjoy the 
pleasures of the table, and how largely we incline to eat 
when the mind is free, unburdened and joyous, com- 
pared with the little attentions we bestow on our 
meals when we are overwhelmed with anxiety, or have 
the whole energies of the mind concentrated on some 
important scheme." 

Hufeland observes that laughter is one of the great- 



The Woman Beautiful. 125 

est helps to digestion, and the custom prevalent among 
our forefathers of exciting it at table by jesters and 
buffoons was founded upon true medical principles. 

In a word, endeavor to have cheerful and merry com- 
panions at your meals, and a good appetite will come 
without any forcing. 



NOURISHING THE BRAIN. 



The brain requires nutriment as well as all other 
tissues of the body. Every mental exertion causes a 
certain amount of waste, or decomposition of some 
of that mysterious gray matter forming the organ of 
the brain. 

It has been proved by analysis of the secretions of 
the brain that the more active the mental exertion is, 
the greater amount of phosphorus is used up and 
thrown off by the system. The brains of idiots con- 
tain less than half the phosphorus that is found in the 
brains of persons of ordinary intellect; and the more 
intellectual an individual is, the greater amount of 
phosphorus his brain contains. 

This remarkable fact was first brought to light 
through the experiments of two celebrated French 
chemists — Vauqualin and L'Harittee. Food for brain 
workers should necessarily contain as much phos- 
phorus as possible. 

Fish, which to a large extent is composed of this 
substance, answers the purpose admirably, and should 
therefore form a frequent article of diet. Apples and 




■'■:.; 



Figure 16. 

For the Arms. 



The Woman Beautiful. 129 

bananas are also rich in phosphorus; while many 
other foods contain it in a less degree. 

Dr. Albert J. Bellows, speaking of brain foods, says : 
''The amount of phosphatic food contained in the flesh 
of any animal, and the physical and mental activity im- 
parted by it, is in exact proportion to the activity of 
that animal, the flesh of the trout, pickerel or salmon 
imparting more mental and physical vigor than that of 
the dormant pout, eel or flounder, and the flesh of the 
wild bison or hog more than that of the domestic 
ox or hog of the same species, and of the active work- 
ing ox more than that of the dormant hog or calf, 
which are fed and fattened in a pen, without exercise. 
And the same remark holds true in relation to the flesh 
of wild and domestic fowls. * * * Much assist- 
ance can be had in selecting foods for the brain De- 
reference to this principle." 

By some authorities, a vegetable diet is considered 
to be highly favorable to mental exertion and intel- 
lectual culture. Sir John Sinclair says that vegetable 
food has a happy influence on the powers of the mind ; 
and tends to preserve delicacy of feeling, and liveliness 
of imagination, and an acuteness of judgment seldom 
enjoyed by those who make a free use of animal food. 

The celebrated Franklin ascertained that a vegetable 



130 The Woman Beautiful. 

diet — promoting clearness of ideas, and quickness of 
perception — is to be preferred by those who labor with 
the mind. Vegetable aliment — as never overextend- 
ing the vessels, or loading the system — never interrupts 
the stronger motions of the mind ; while the heat, full- 
ness and weight of animal food is an enemy to its vig- 
orous efforts. 

• Temperance does not so much consist in the quan- 
tity — for that will always be regulated by our appe- 
tite — ^as in the quality; namely, a large proportion of 
vegetable aliment. 

In proof of the assertion that a vegetable diet pro- 
motes clearness of ideas and quickness of thought, and 
that a transition from vegetable to animal food pro- 
duces injurious effects, one of Sir John Sinclair's 
friends states that he has more than once selected, from 
his tenants' children in Ireland, a boy remarkable for 
that smartness of intelligence so common in the Irish 
youth, while in the capacity of errand boys on the 
farm, or helpers in the stables, and before they became 
pampered with better food than their parents' cabin af- 
forded. 

The lads, at first, were lively and intelligent, and 
displayed a degree of shrewdness exceeding what is 
met with from the youth of a more elevated walk in 



The Woman Beautiful. 131 

England. But he invariabaly found that, in propor- 
tion as those boys became accustomed to animal food, 
and, according to common notions, were better fed, 
they relaxed in activity, and became dull and stupid; 
and he is confident that the change in the disposition 
was the effect of the change of diet ; and was not owing 
to the corruption of mind from intercourse with the 
other servants. 

In fact, they lost all their vivacity of manner, so in- 
herent in Irish boys — whether born in the vast bog of 
Allen or in the dry and rocky mountains of Mayo and 
Galway. It is clear, then, that the character of the 
people does not depend so much upon the climate and 
soil, as upon the kind of food that is eaten. 

Our thoughts, our actions, our aspirations, our tem- 
pers, our passions, are all more or less governed by the 
food we eat and the beverages we drink. Great meat 
eaters are usually more spirited, passionate, excitable, 
and irritable than those who take animal food spar- 
ingly. 

Lord Byron's historian says : "One day, as I sat op- 
posite to him, employed, I suppose, rather earnestly 
over a beefsteak — after watching me for a few sec- 
onds, he said, in a grave tone of inquiry : 'Moore, don't 
you find eating beefsteaks makes you ferocious?' " 



132 



The Woman Beautiful. 



Kean, the actor, is said to have suited his diet to the 
part in the drama which he was going to play, and 
selected mutton for lovers, beef for murderers, and 
pork for tyrants. 

It is related of Fuseli, the painter, that he was in 
the habit of eating raw meat, for the purpose of rais- 
ing horrible imaginations in his mind; while for a 
similar object Mrs. Radcliffe is said to have dined 
upon uncooked meat during the period she was writing 
"The Mysteries of Udolpho." 

Such whimsical instances as these, however, prove 
nothing of any scientific value. The best examples of 
the influence of food upon the passion and propensities 
is, perhaps, found in the great difference existing be- 
tween herbivorous and carnivorous animals; the lamb 
and the lion being a striking illustration. 



THE EVIL OF OVEREATING. 



It is only too true that in these days people are short- 
ening their lives by overeating. Excess of anything 
that concerns our bodies is always dangerous, and the 
act of eating and drinking is no exception to the rule. 
The four or five-course dinner, so fashionable among 
the upper classes of society, is frequently a cause of 
excess in eating, and of inducing the ill effects that 
follow. 

A great variety of food taken at one meal gives the 
digestive organs a most troublesome task to perform. 
This is owing to the fact that each article of diet re- 
quires in digestion a different exertion of the stomach, 
and a different period of time for digestion. 

Various stages of digestion are thus occurring at 
the same time with that strange conglomeration of 
food in the stomach, which must certainly overwork 
the accommodating, but sometimes rebellious, juices of 
digestion. 

It is said that "even a worm will turn," and so, no 
wonder the stomach at last turns wrathfully upon its 



134 The Woman Beautiful. 

owner, punishing him with dyspepsia, or secreting in 
his tissues the unhealthy fat of obesity. 

Other classes of society are also guilty of excess 
with their fewer courses of food. A surfeit is often 
indulged in with most harmful effects. 

A good rule of guidance as to the proper amount of 
food that should be taken at any meal, is to finish be- 
fore being quite satisfied. It is the extra ounce or 
two that creates the mischief. 

It is no easy thing, perhaps, to sit before a table 
groaning with good things and surrounded by those 
who, like ourselves, enjoy them, and then to practice 
moderation; but while overindulgence may go un- 
punished for a time, sooner or later, if food be taken in 
excess of the demands of the body and purely at the in- 
stigation of the appetite, a day of retribution will come 
when, in bilious misery, if no worse, we recognize that 
enough is sufficient. 

How much each should eat will be a matter for each 
to determine by experience. 

The young properly eat more in proportion to their 
size than those of full growth, because like all young 
animals they are more active, and therefore have more 
waste to repair. 

Further than that, however, in them the repair of 



The Woman Beautiful. 135 

waste is not sufficient, for growth must always be pro- 
vided for, and hence a "hearty appetite" in childhood 
is — within limits — a thing to be encouraged. . 

In full growth, however, of necessity the food is 
taken only to repair waste, and the amount to be taken 
can readily be determined by each individual. In old 
age the requirement for food is still less, for with ad- 
vancing years there is less exercise. 

A small amount of food will therefore suffice ro 
maintain the nutrition of the aged, though, owing to 
the digestive enfeeblement of old age, that little should 
be simple, nourishing, and susceptible of easy digestion. 

Diet should wait on exercise; for, manifestly, if food 
is taken to provide the means for vital powers shown in 
motion, and little motion is required, then little food 
should be used, and that of the least hearty kinds, else 
a harmful accumulation. 

To feed the laborer and the student alike would 
be folly; for the tissue waste of the former is great, 
while that of the sedentary liver is very small indeed ; 
therefore the latter requires much less food than the 
former. 



TABLE OF DIGESTION. 



It will help to a correct selection of articles of diet if 
the time taken in digestion is borne in mind. Some 
foods are much more easily digested than others, as is 
evident from the following table, which shows approx- 
imately the time necessary for the digestion of the prin- 
ciple articles of food. The first column represents 
the hours ; the second, the minutes : 






H. M. 

Rice, boiled i oo 

Tripe, boiled i oo 

Eggs, whipped i 30 

Trout, fried 1 30 

Soup (barley) , boiled 1 30 

Apples (sweet), raw 1 30 

Venison steak, boiled 1 30 

Sago, boiled 1 45 

Tapioca, boiled 2 00 

Barley, boiled 2 00 

Milk, boiled 2 00 

Codfish (cured), boiled 2 00 

Liver (beef), broiled 2 00 

Eggs ( fresh) , raw 2 00 

Apples (sour), raw 2 00 

Cabbage, raw 2 00 

Milk 2 15 

Eggs, roasted 2 15 

Goose, roasted 2 30 

Turkey, roasted 2 30 

Cake ( sponge) , baked 2 30 



The Woman Beautiful. 137 

Hash, warmed 2 30 

Beans (pod), boiled 2 30 

Parsnips, boiled 2 30 

Custards, baked 2 50 

Oysters, raw 2 55 

Eggs, soft-boiled 3 00 

Beef, roasted 3 00 

Mutton, boiled 3 00 

Soup (bean) , boiled 3 00 

Chicken soup, boiled 3 00 

Pork (salt), boiled 3 15 

Mutton, roasted 3 15 

Bread (corn), baked 3 15 

Carrots, boiled 3 15 

Sausage, broiled 3 20 

Oysters, stewed 3 30 

Butter 3 30 

Cheese (old) 3 30 

Bread, fresh-baked 3 30 

Turnips (flat), boiled 3 30 

Potatoes (Irish), boiled 3 30 

Eggs, hard-boiled 3 30 

Green corn, boiled 3 45 

Beans, boiled 3 45 

Beets, boiled 3 45 

Salmon (salted), boiled 400 

Duck, roasted 4 00 

Veal, fried 4 30 

Cabbage, boiled 4 30 

Pork, roasted 5 15 

Suet (beef) , roasted 5 30 



The ignorance among the masses regarding the rel- 
ative value of different articles of daily food is truly 
lamentable. There is a prevalent notion that it does 
not matter in the least what our diet consists of, pro- 
viding the appetite is fully satisfied. 



138 The Woman Beautiful. 

To such misguided persons a pound of carrots is as 
good as a pound of peas, and a pound of tapioca as 
a pound of rice. But, as a matter of fact, it makes a 
considerable difference to our physical system what the 
nature of the food is that forms our diet. 

Some classes of food are flesh-formers and heat- 
producers to a far greater extent than others; some 
form no flesh whatever, and only produce heat in the 
system; while others do very little, except giving the 
stomach plenty of hard work. 

We need both the heat-producing and flesh-forming 
foods to maintain life; and it is most important for 
good health that our diet should comprise plenty 
of each. 

The vast difference in the constitution of food will be 
seen in the fact that out of 100 pounds of cheese the 
flesh- forming prinicple is 31 pounds, and the heat-pro- 
ducing principle 25 pounds; while in the bread that 
generally accompanies it, the flesh-forming principle 
in 100 pounds is only 7 pounds, but the heat-producing 
principle is 48 pounds. 

In the same quantity of dry peas the flesh-forming 
principle would be 23 pounds, and the heat-producing 
principle as much as 60 pounds, which is a striking 
contrast to that of carrots, where the flesh-forming 



The Woman Beautiful. 



139 



principle is only 1 pound and the heat-producing prin- 
ciple 12 pounds. 

The following is a useful table showing the relative 
value of the principal articles of food, as flesh-formers 
and heat-producers. Such substances as sugar, butter, 
suet, fat, etc., are not included, as they do not form 
flesh, but simply produce heat in the body: 



Weight. 



IOO 





Flesh- 


Heat- 






ES OP DIET. 


forming 


giving 


Water. 


Mineral 




Principle. 


Principle. 




Matters 


Cheese 


31 


25 


39 


5 


Dry peas. . . . 


23 


60 


14 


3 


Cooked meat. 


22 


14 


63 


1 


Oatmeal 


17 


69 


II 


3 


Barley-meal. . 


14 


68 


16 


2 


Fish 


H 


7 


78 


1 


Wheat-flour. . 


13 


66 


20 


1 


Indian meal. . 


II 


73 


13 


1 


Cocoa nibs. .. 


10 


86 


.1 


3 


Bacon 


8 


63 


28 


1 


Bread 


7 


49 


42 


2 


Rice 


7 


92 




1 


Green peas. . . 


7 


36 


54 


3 


Milk 


5 


8 


86 


1 


Sago, arrow- 










root and tap 










ioca 


4 


82 


13 


1 


Potatoes.. .. 


2 


23 


74 


1 


Parsnips. . . . 


2 


18 


79 


1 


Carrots 


1 


12 


86 


1 



THE VALUE OF FRUITS. 



It is hardly necessary to say that when attention is 
being given to diet, fruit must not be overlooked. It 
will keep the system in proper condition and, if used 
judiciously, will help considerably in the attainment 
of beauty. The apple, for instance, is most beneficial 
for the skin and complexion. 

This fruit also contains a large percentage of phos- 
phorus, and is in consequence a brain food of high or- 
der. The acids of the apple are most useful for persons 
of sedentary habits, whose livers are sluggish in action 
and need stimulating. 

The old Scandinavian traditions represent the apple 
as the food of the gods, who, when they felt themselves 
growing feeble and infirm, partook of this fruit to re- 
new their power of mind and body. 

Among other fruits useful for their medical prop- 
erties are strawberries, which contain much iron, and 
are therefore excellent for ansemic persons. 

Bananas, like apples, are rich with phosphorus, and 
so should be eaten plentifully by brain workers. There 
is also no better diet for the typhoid fever patient than 




Figure 17. 

To Become Muscular and Strong. 



The Woman Beautiful. 143 

bananas. They may be taken in the form of a gruel, 
made from banana flour, or from baked bananas. 

The tomato, which is open to controversy whether 
it be a fruit or a vegetable, acts most efficaciously upon 
the liver and bowels. It contains a large amount of 
iron, and has been especially recommended for use in 
cases of blood impoverishment. 

Oranges are good for preventing constipation, and 
for purifying the blood; and the same may be said 
of pomegranates and lemons. 

Small seeded fruits, such as raspberries, currants, 
figs, etc., act both as food and medicine to the body. 
The sugar they contain is nutritious ; the acids in them 
purify the blood ; and their seeds act as a laxative. 

In nuts we have all the food elements for which 
meat, eggs, butter, cheese and milk are valued. Nuts 
contain from 35 to 53 per cent, of fat in a pure emulsi- 
fied form, which renders it easy of digestion. They 
also possess more albumen than meat. 

A celebrated French physician, Dr. Dupoury, di- 
vides fruit into five classes, each of which possesses a 
special hygienic value — the acid, the sweet, the astrin- 
gent, the oily, and the mealy. 

To the first, including cherries, strawberries, rasp- 
berries, gooseberries, peaches, apples, lemons and 



1 44 The Woman Beautiful. 

Oranges, he accords great merit. Cherries, however, 
he prohibits entirely to those affected with neuralgia 
of the stomach. Strawberries and raspberries he rec- 
ommends warmly to those of a bilious, plethoric and 
gouty temperament, and denies them to those in whom 
diabetes is present or expected. 

Of the sweet fruits he considers that plums are of 
special hygienic value, and even a preventative in gout 
and articular rheumatism. To the grape he accords the 
very first place. 

He is an ardent advocate of what in Europe is called 
the grape cure. In this cure grapes for several days 
form the exclusive aliment. The patient commences 
with the consumption of from one to two pounds 
daily, with a gradual increase to eight or ten pounds. 
After a few days of this diet, a marked improve- 
ment in the general health is noticeable. The appe- 
tite improves, the digestion becomes easy and rapid, 
and increased capacity to withstand the fatigue of out- 
door exercise is noticeable. 

The grape cure is particularly recommended to the 
anaemic, dyspeptic and consumptive, in the diseases 
of liver and in gout. 



THE VALUE OF VEGETABLES. 



Vegetables ought to form an important part in our 
diet. It is quite possible to abstain from all animal 
food and enjoy the best of health, but to banish vege- 
tables and fruits from our tables would be to induce 
disease into our physical systems. 

The potato, the most familiar among vegetables, 
constitutes a very wholesome article of daily food ; but 
owing to the large quantity of water it contains (75 per 
cent, when raw), it requires to be eaten with other 
aliments. 

Concerning the properties of the potato, Dr. T. W. 
Pavy, in his "Treatise on Food," says that the amount 
of nitrogenous matter it contains is too small to enable 
it to form a suitable food alone, but with articles rich 
in nitrogenous matter, as meat, fish, etc., it supplies a 
useful and economical alimentary substance. 

In a floury or mealy state the potato enjoys easy 
digestibility ; but in a close, watery, or waxy state it is 
very trying to the digestive powers and should, there- 
fore, when in this condition, be avoided where delicacy 
of stomach exists. 



146 The Woman Beautiful. 

Young potatoes may be more tempting than old, 
but, from what has been said, will be understood to be 
indigestible. The potato has a high repute for the pos- 
session of antiscorbutic properties. The concurrent 
testimony of numerous observers points to its forming 
a more efficient agent in preventing the occurrence 
of scurvy. 

Turnips afford a light and wholesome nourishment. 
With many persons they act as a laxative, and so should 
be freely eaten by all who suffer from costiveness. 

Parsnips are an appetizing and nutritious article of 
diet. There are cases upon record of people who 
have lived for two and three months on parsnips alone. 

Carrots are somewhat nourishing, but to many per- 
sons they are found to be difficult to digest, being of a 
flatulent nature. 

The onion, from the sulphur it contains, possesses 
useful health-giving properties. 

Of this vegetable, Dr. R. H. Dalton, writing in the 
Medical Brief, says : "Sulphur being an important ele- 
ment in our corporate being, its functional waste must 
be supplied by nutritive matter derived from our food, 
and in all our dietary it seems that nothing affords it 
more bountifully, and in more digestible form, than 



The Woman Beautiful. 147 

the tabooed onion; and this appears to be a positive 
physiological requirement for the enjoyment of perfect 
health. When properly cooked — either boiled, fried 
or stewed — it is perfectly prepared for easy digestion 
and assimilation, affording the chief elements of nutri- 
tion, as well as of sulphur. And when selected as a 
condiment at dinner, to be eaten raw, with meat in 
small bits, nothing will so well brace the stomach for 
its post-prandial function." 

Cabbages and other green vegetables are in them- 
selves of little value as food, but in admixture they 
form important articles of diet. They purify the 
blood, and have a laxative tendency. 

Spinach is especially to be recommended for anaemic 
persons, on account of the large amount of iron it 
contains. 

Watercresses, by operating in some degree as an 
aromatic, promote digestion, and correct that tendency 
to flatulency which other raw vegetables are apt to 
produce. 

According to Xenophon, the ancient Persians lived 
almost entirely upon watercresses, which they consid- 
ered the most wholesome of all herbs. 

Horseradish is highly valuable to the dyspeptic as a 



i 4 8 



The Woman Beautiful. 



stimulant, and is, perhaps, the best of all condiments 
for the prevention of flatulence. 

Cucumbers are by far the most unwholesome of all 
raw vegetables, and should never be eaten by dyspep- 
tics; in fact, everybody would be better without them. 



FOODS TO AVOID. 



In the search for health and beauty there are cer- 
tain foods which must be avoided, even by those who 
boast the best digestion. 

Consumers of pork run the risk of engendering into 
their system certain disorders which no other article 
of diet can possibly produce. 

It was no doubt for this reason that swine's flesh 
was prohibited by the law of Moses to be used as food, 
and denounced as an abomination. 

Mohammed also forbids it to be eaten, and his two 
hundred millions of followers in the world to-day re- 
fuse to touch "the unclean thing." The hog is cer- 
tainly a most unclean beast, no other animal in crea- 
tion having such filthy habits. He will eat anything 
and everything that happens to come in his way, even 
animal carcasses undergoing decomposition. 

The late Sir James Paget first discovered in the flesh 
of swine the minute parasite called trichina spiralis. 

These microscopic worms, when not destroyed by 
perfect cooking, are taken into the stomach of man 



150 The Woman Beautiful. 

and produce most painful symptoms, which in a few 
weeks result in death. 

The parasites in some cases have been known to 
penetrate the whole of the muscular system, and up- 
ward of 50,000 computed to exist on a square inch. 

Fortunately for the masses, instances of this terrible 
disease of trichinosis is somewhat rare; nevertheless, 
it does occasionally occur, thus placing all pork-eaters 
in peril. 

The tapeworm is a more familiar parasite that devel- 
ops in the stomach of man as a result of eating pork. 
In fact, nearly every case of tapeworm arises from 
the use of this unwholesome article of diet. 

A large proportion of the scrofula, dyspepsia, bil- 
iousness, and other similar complaints, which so many 
people suffer from in this country, may also be at- 
tributable in a great measure to the fondness for that 
luscious flesh of the occupant of the sty. 

Liver, so largely eaten by the working classes, is 
another article of food that is the means of introducing 
impure matter into the system. The liver, as most peo- 
ple are aware, is the largest excreting gland in the 
body. 

Its work is to excrete bile, which contains a cer- 
tain amount of waste poisonous matter. Kidneys are 



The Woman Beautiful. 151 

equally pernicious, as they are the organs which sep- 
arate certain unsavory matters from the blood. 

Red meats, broiled, boiled, baked or roasted, are ad- 
mirable food for those who need them, but when fried 
or overcooked they are almost worthless. 

Bread, well made and baked, may be the "staff of 
life;" badly made and baked it is the usual source of 
"sour stomach." 

The true value of a dish depends more upon the 
proper choice, combinations and cookery of the ingre- 
dients, than upon the quantity of solid, nutritious 
matters found by a laboratory analysis of the uncooked 
materials. 

It is to be hoped that as time passes our women may 
be sufficiently impressed by the growing lack of intelli- 
gence in the servants who work in our kitchens to 
study cookery as a science; then they may be able 
without the assistance of drugs, to digest the God- 
given foods. 

We all know, or should, at least, that an egg lightly 
cooked will digest in half the time that it will take to 
digest one hard-boiled. 

In winter, in cold climates, the carbonaceous foods 
should be increased ; in summer heat, use in their place 
sub-acid fruits and green vegetables, and a less pro- 
portion also of flesh foods. 



WHAT TO DRINK AND WHEN 



An excellent maxim is "never drink unless thirsty," 
and then always desist directly thirst is quenched. 

It is not good to drink immediately before a meal, 
as this distends the stomach and dilutes the gastric 
juices, which consequently hinders the work of diges- 
tion. 

The proper and most natural time for drinking is 
just at the end of a meal, when a little fluid is very 
helpful in the solution and digestion of the food. 
As a general rule people drink more than their bodies 
really require. Drinking too much, though it be only 
pure water, is not an uncommon cause of debility 
and many other complaints. If more fluid is received 
into the system than it can beneficially appropriate, 
the consequence is that in being thrown off by skin or 
kidneys it carries away other matters that the system 
may require. 

It is observed by Dr. Thudichum "that a large 
quantity of water acts as a diuretic, so long as there 
are soluble substances in the blood to be carried away 




Figure 18. 
For AH the Muscles. 



The Woman Beautiful. 155 

with it." This, of course, equally applies to other 
fluids, such as beer, tea, coffee, etc. 

Few people while sipping their breakfast cup of tea, 
coffee, or cocoa, give a thought as to the influence that 
the beverage of their choice is physically and men- 
tally exerting upon them. 

Both tea and coffee have been strongly condemned 
by many eminent members of the medical profession; 
and not, I think, without just grounds. 

Tea and coffee greatly resemble each other in com- 
position and properties. They both possess a certain 
quantity of astringent matter, like tannic acid, 
amounting in tea to fifteen per cent, and in coffee to five 
per cent. ; each contains a volatile aromatic principle, 
developed in the process of drying and roasting; and 
both possess a crystallizable body, known in tea as 
theine, and in coffee as caffeine. 

This substance has been separated from tea and cof- 
fee, and experiments have been made with it which 
prove it to be a deadly poison, capable of producing 
instant death in both human beings and lower animals. 

Of course, such experiments do not show that the 
contents of our tea and coffeepots are actually poison- 
ous, any more than tobacco may be said to be poison- 



i 5 6 



The Woman Beautiful. 



ous from the fact that one-tenth of a grain of its nico- 
tine will kill a frog. 

Nevertheless, it proves that such beverages as tea 
and coffee, to say the least, are to a certain extent in- 
jurious to our constitutions ; therefore every one would 
be healthier without them. 

Tea is one of the most potent causes of indigestion. 
It paralyses the action of the salivary secretion upon 
food, and also retards the stomachal digestion. 

That the excessive use of tea produces nervousness 
is a well-known and established fact needing no com- 
ment. Muscular tremors, dyspepsia, mental irritabil- 
ity, and sleeplessness are some of the penalties that in- 
temperate tea drinkers have sooner or later to pay. 

A cup of strong coffee after dinner instantly checks 
digestion. It is only when the absorption or removal 
of it has been effected that relief is felt. 

Coffee is decidedly not suitable for delicate and irri- 
table persons, as it is stimulating without being nutri- 
tious, and accelerates wasting of the organs, producing 
thinness and paleness. 

Cocoa or chocolate are greatly to be preferred to tea 
or coffee, as they are less injurious to the system. They 
are both meat and drink in the way of aliment, and the 



The Woman Beautiful, 157 

fatty, albuminous and starchy matters contained in 
their constitution are highly nutritious. 

Milk is an excellent beverage for persons in delicate 
health, especially if they are uanble to take much solid 
food. But for individuals in robust health and with 
hearty appetites it is somewhat of a superfluity. 

"It really represents," says Dr. Lancaster, "all the 
food of which we partake which is not medicinal." 

A rump steak and a glass of milk would, therefore, 
form a dietetic error. 

Milk should always be drank slowly, in little sips of 
not more than one teaspoonful at a time; otherwise 
it curdles into a large mass in the stomach, and is dif- 
ficult to digest. 

As regards alcoholic drinks, so much has been said 
and written upon their evils that one is almost tempted 
to pass the subject over in silence. 

However, a few brief facts concerning the action 
of alcohol upon the physical system may not be out 
of place. 

Alcohol is not a food, as many people erroneously 
suppose. In no way does it nourish the body; neither 
does it give strength or maintain strength. It cannot 
make blood, from which alone flesh, bone, nerve and 
muscle are formed; but it even prevents the natural 



158 The Woman Beautiful. 

changes going on in the blood, and obstructs the nutri- 
tive and reparative functions. 

There is a common idea that alcoholic drinks act as 
as an aid to the digestion of food. This, however, 
is not the case, as nearly all eminent authorities agree. 

The action of alcohol on the digestive fluid, as dem- 
onstrated by chemical experiments, is to destroy its 
principle (the pepsin). This is why so many spirit 
drinkers suffer from dyspepsia. 

Another prevalent error regarding alcoholic bever- 
ages is that they lessen the effects of cold upon the 
body. As a matter of fact, their actual influence 
is to render the body more liable to injury from cold, 
as the artificial and temporary warmth produced is al- 
ways succeeded by chilliness. 

That alcohol shortens life can scarcely be denied 
when we consider that one ounce taken per day has an 
effect upon the heart of raising the pulse three beats 
per minute. 

To place this extra amount of work upon that vital 
organ presiding over the circulatiton of the blood, 
must necessarily wear out the system long before the 
time intended by nature. 

For some years a decided inclination has been appar- 
ent all over the country to give up the use of whisky 



The Woman Beautiful. 159 

and other strong alcohols, using as a substitute beer 
and other compounds. This, says the Scientific Amer- 
ican, is evidently founded on the idea that beer is not 
harmful, and contains a large amount of nutriment; 
also that bitters may have some medicinal quality which 
will neutralize the alcohol it conceals. These theories 
are without confirmation in the observation of physi- 
cians. The use of beer is found to produce a species 
of degeneration of all the organs; profound and de- 
ceptive fatty deposits, diminished circulation, condi- 
tions of congestion, and perversion of functional ac- 
tivities, local inflammations of both the liver and 
kidneys are constantly present. Intellectually, a stu- 
por, amounting almost to a paralysis, arrests the rea- 
son, changing all the higher faculties into a mere ani- 
malism, sensual, selfish, sluggish, varied only with 
paroxysms of anger that are senseless and brutal. In 
appearance the beer drinker may be the picture of 
health, but in reality he is most incapable of resisting 
disease. A slight injury, a severe cold, or a shock 
to the body or mind will commonly provoke acute dis- 
ease, ending fatally. Compared with inebriates who 
use different kinds of alcohol, he is more incurable 
and more generally diseased. The constant use of 



160 The Woman Beautiful. 

beer every day gives the system no recuperation, but 
steadily lowers the vital forces. 

On the other hand, water must be regarded as a 
food, seeing that it forms a necessary part of every 
tissue in our bodies, besides being a chief constituent 
of the blood that courses through our veins. 

We take into the system large supplies of water in 
shape of ordinary articles of food, many of which 
are more than three parts composed from it. 

Even this, however, is not sufficient to meet the re- 
quirements of our bodies, and to repair their constant 
waste. A full-grown man loses daily about eighty- 
four ounces of water, half of this quantity being given 
off by the skin and lungs. 

Water, besides nourishing the body, also acts as a 
stimulant, but without that depressing reaction which 
accompanies the use of alcoholic drinks. 

When we drink a glass of water it slightly raises the 
pulsation of the heart, which circulates the blood more 
freely and causes a healthy exhilarating effect upon the 
whole body. 

Dr. George S. Keith, in his book, "Fads of an Old 
Physician," sings the praises of warm water as a help- 
ful stimulant. 

Hot water, he says, acts as a stimulant by supplying 




Figure 19. 

A Valuable Exercise for the Heart. 



The Woman Beautiful. 163 

ready-made heat or force, when the organs are not 
able to form the same by ordinary digestion of carbona- 
ceous food. Hot water thus aids, or rather supple- 
ments, the chemical actions of the system. 

Alcohol, on the contrary, checks these actions, and 
its effect, therefore, is to lower the activity of the sys- 
tem — that is, to reduce the strength for the time ; or at 
the best it may give, through some obscure nervous 
action, a short-lived fillip ; but this is speedily followed 
by reaction and by an increase of weakness. 

Water may also be looked upon as a great medicine ; 
it is a great purifier to our systems, an indispensable 
aid to digestion, and a laxative if taken early in the 
morning, fasting. 

Warm water, if substituted for tea, coffee, and all 
other drinks, and a glass of it drank at the end of every 
meal, forms a wonderful remedy for indigestion. 



BATHING FOR BEAUTY. 



Beauty is so dependent on the functions of the skin 
being efficiently maintained, that one can hardly over- 
rate the importance of baths, exercise, and a supply of 
fresh air both day and night, as it is on these things 
being attended to that its health mainly depends; that 
is, of course, if we have not become the victims of dys- 
pepsia, and there is no other functional disease pres- 
ent. 

The skin is one of the most important organs of the 
body, and the complex duties that it performs are in- 
dispensable to both health and life. The stomach, 
liver, and even the brain itself, are not so necessary 
to our existence as the skin. 

Persons may live for a week, or more, without food, 
and the liver may wholly cease to do its work for days 
before death ensues ; but if the functions of the skin 
are destroyed death will ensue in a few hours. 

It is recorded that on the occasion of Leo X. ascend- 
ing to the papal chair of Rome, there was a great pro- 
cession through the streets of Florence, when a little 



The Woman Beautiful. 165 

child was completely covered over with gold-leaf to rep- 
resent the "golden age." 

To the horror of the spectators it died a few hours 
after in strong convulsions. 

The fatality was caused, of course, through stopping 
up the pores of the skin, and thus rendering perspira- 
tion impossible. 

Now when we neglect to keep the skin clean, either 
by bathing or exercise, we choke up the twenty-eight 
miles of drain pipes which the skin contain. 

This cannot be done with impunity; ill health fol- 
lows as a natural consequence, and even fatal diseases 
are engendered. 

The whiteness, the transparency, and the color of 
the skin have always been considered as an essential 
condition of beauty. 

However perfect the features of the face may be, 
all charm is lost if the skin be sallow or discolored. 
Beauty also disappears, more or less, when the skin 
is blemished with pimples, blotches, wrinkles, or even 
with freckles. 

The nature and state of the skin governs the com- 
plexion ; and the complexion to a great extent controls 
the beauty of the countenance. Who has ever seen an 
ugly face possessing a beautiful complexion? 



1 66 The Woman Beautiful. 

There are, of course, plain faces with clear complex- 
ions and rosy cheeks ; but they are always pleasing to 
look upon. 

The responsibility of the preservation of that im- 
portant organ, the skin, rests with each individual 
owning the precious cuticle. Those who aspire to be 
beautiful must give it their constant attention. 

The matutinal cold tub, which, many women appear 
to think comprises the whole virtue of cleanliness, will 
not by itself keep the skin in proper working order, 
being mainly valuable as a tonic to it, and the nerves of 
those really strong enough to stand it, and it, there- 
fore, requires to be supplemented by a preliminary 
sponge, with hot, or at least tepid, soft water, and a 
vigorous rubbing with a well-soaped loofah frequently 
wrung out of this. 

Then, after this has been quickly done, with no un- 
necessary dawdling, should come the cold bath of a 
minute or two's duration only, though, followed by a 
thorough toweling and vigorous friction — to close the 
pores and brace the body against cold and sudden 
changes of temperature. 

The reason that this last is valueless for cleansing 
purposes, unless preceded by the warm sponge bath, 
with plenty of soap and friction, is that it leaves the 



The Woman Beautiful. 167 

old scarf-skin on and the waste matter constantly ex- 
creted by the sebaceous and perspiratory glands, com- 
monly spoken of as the pores, still clogging and chok- 
ing up the mouths of the latter, thus rendering inactive 
and powerless one of the principal excretory organs of 
the body. 

The result of doing this is not only a dull, coarse, 
muddy complexion, disfigured by spots, acne, and 
premature lines and wrinkles, but general lassitude, 
depression and sleeplessness, followed by torpid liver, 
constipation and indigestion, set up by the other organs 
of the body being overworked and then choked up by 
the refuse the skin has not been able to pass off, and 
that has, therefore, been reabsorbed into the system, to 
become the cause of much preventable disease and con- 
stant bad health. To avert these evils, then, do not 
neglect this daily warm sponge bath, especially after 
exercise, always followed, though, by a cold one of 
some kind, just a quick sponge over with cold water 
being quite sufficient to close the pores and ward off 
chill, and much preferable to immersion when debility, 
a bad circulation, or approaching age render the shock 
of this unwise, if not positively harmful. 

Then this must be supplemented at least once, and 
preferably twice, a week by a hot bath on retiring. The 



1 68 The Woman Beautiful. 

degree of heat for this depends on one's age, consti- 
tution, and general health at the time, but it should 
never, under any circumstances, be taken till at least 
three hours have elapsed since a meal, and this rule 
applies practically to all baths, except, perhaps, a 
sponge one after a light meal — such as afternoon tea 
— when two hours is a long enough interval. 

After the hot bath at bedtime, sip a glass of warm 
milk, with two or three light, crisp, unsweetened bis- 
cuits, in bed, just before turning the light out, or 
you will probably court slumber in vain. 

This little meal in bed, so generally ordered by doc- 
tors in cases of insomnia and other nerve troubles — 
and, indeed, for all women and growing girls especially 
who are not very robust, and partake of dinner or sup- 
per two or three hours before retiring, as they should 
do — does much to cure sleeplessness, as it takes the 
blood away from the brain to the stomach. 

If the bath is neglected in youth, the complexion will 
never be preserved long. It may look lovely during 
the twenties, but assuredly it will not last, and the skin 
will retain no delicacy or brilliance. 

Many minor eruptions, and a blotchy, unwholesome 
condition of the face, can be avoided by careful atten- 



The Woman Beautiful. 169 

titon to the state of the stomach, and proper and 
judicious exercise. 

People with a disposition to acne should never in- 
dulge in pastry, sweets or salted preserved meats ; and 
fish and ale, stout and red wine must be shunned like 
poison by full-blooded women who are anxious to pre- 
serve their looks. 

When we come to the important subject of washing 
the face it is hardly necessary to say that the softest 
water and the very best soap procurable must be used ; 
though, indeed, carelessness in this matter can easily 
be understood if we realize that it takes quite a long 
course of hard water and cheap nasty soap to spoil a 
really beautiful skin. 

Upon the subject of bathing, Sir Erasmus Wilson 
says that the temperature of the water should be raised 
to a point at which it feels lukewarm, but no higher. 
For if cold water be hurtful to the skin, that which is 
hot is infinitely more mischievous, particularly in the 
winter season. The heat excites the circulation of the 
part, and stimulates its nerves ; it is then, perhaps, im- 
mediately exposed to a cold atmosphere. Can we be 
surprised that, with such an extreme, the skin should 
be irritated, roughened and chapped, or that the com- 
plexion should suffer? 



170 The Woman Beautiful. 

Persons of vigorous constitutions may indulge in 
cold water bathing. Sea bathing is very beneficial to 
most persons. Salt water does not strike so cold to 
the skin as does fresh water. 

As regards the proper time for bathing, the follow- 
ing cautions are well worth remembering: 

Avoid bathing within two hours after a meal. 

Avoid bathing when exhausted by fatigue or from 
any other cause. 

Avoid bathing when the body is cooling after per- 
spiration. 

Avoid bathing altogether in the open air if, after be- 
ing a short time in the water, it causes a sense of 
chilliness with numbness of the hands and feet. 

Bathe when the body is warm, provided no time is 
lost in getting into the water. 

Avoid chilling the body by sitting or standing un- 
dressed on the banks or in the boats after having beet 
in the water. 

Avoid remaining too long in the water; leave th< 
water immediately there is the slightest feeling oi 
chilliness. 

The vigorous and strong may bathe early in th< 
morning on an empty stomach. 

The young and those who are weak had better bathe 




Figure 20. 

For Adding Grace and Beauty to the Figure. 



The Woman Beautiful. 173 

two or three hours after a meal — the best time for 
such is from two to three hours after breakfast. 

Those who are subject to giddiness or faintness, and 
those who suffer from palpitation and other sense of 
discomfort at the heart, should not bathe without 
first consulting their medical adviser. 

A warm salt bath is very refreshing to any one suf- 
fering from exhaustion of travel or of a long shopping 
expedition — which is as trying to mind and body as 
anything that can be undertaken by a woman. 

Away from the seashore a very simple substitute for 
sea water is a cup of rock-salt dissolved in warm water 
and added to the bath. 

When the salt is irritating to the skin, take a warm 
bath and sponge off with a mixture of violet or laven- 
der water and alcohol, about half and half, and rub 
briskly with a warm friction towel. 

Such a method prevents the exhaustion and danger 
of cold which follow a warm bath. 

Women who are pale, thin and nervous must noi 
bathe too frequently, as the water will be apt to carry 
away some of their vitality. 

Imperfect perspiration or insufficient action of the 
pores is not uncommon among women. Warm bath- 
ing and a free use of the flesh brush will be found val- 



174 



The Woman Beautiful. 



uable in such cases; if flannel be worn next the skin 
it should be taken off at night. 

Corpulent persons, whose circulation is dormant, 
should take a warm bath twice or thrice a week. It is 
for them a needful act of purification. 

After breakfast is the best time for sea bathing. 

When one is sleepless from headache, nervousness, 
or cold feet, a decidedly hot footbath for five min- 
utes, followed by a cold dash, then wiping and rubbing, 
is highly useful. 

Where baths are not accessible, spread a square piece 
of thick blanket before your washstand, place the foot- 
bath upon it, and stand in it, using soft water and a 
large sponge. If you use soap, let it be the very best. 
When soft water cannot be procured, the soap should 
be washed off with warm water. Dry with a coarse 
towel, and rub till the skin glows. 

A small quantity of ammonia — enough to make the 
water feel just a little bit slippery between the fingers 
— is infinitely better than any soap for bathing. The 
alkali in the ammonia and the oil in the pores of the 
skin make soap enough. It cleanses more thoroughly 
than soap and leaves no particles to clog the pores, as 
soap does. 

A warm bath, as distinct from a hot one, is seldom 



The Woman Beautiful. 175 

injurious, but the safest are the tepid or the quite cold. 
The test of whether the constitution is sufficiently vig- 
orous to stand the shock of a cold bath is a simple one. 

If, after the bath, when the skin is dried, the whole 
surface of the body glows with heat and is suffused 
with a pink tint, all is well. 

But if this reactionary warmth fails to respond to 
vigorous rubbing with the towels the bath is injurious. 

A chill often follows the hot bath, which proves 
how dangerous it is. If a chill follows the cold bath 
it must be abandoned at once and the tepid tried. 

Much depends upon the circulation, whether it be 
brisk or sluggish. If the former, the cold bath may 
almost certainly be ventured upon with uniformity, 
and become a daily delight. But if the circulation be 
slow and defective, a large can of hot water must 
be added to the cold. 

Only a short time should be allowed to the batli 
proper, whether hot, warm, tepid or cold ; but the 
drying process must be thorough and vigorous. 

A good way of applying to the face all the beneficial 
effects of the hot bath without taking one, and thus 
weakening the body, is by using a vaporizer, a neat and 
ingenious little apparatus by means of which the 



176 The Woman Beautiful. 

skin may be steamed with great ease and even pleas- 
ure. 

It consists of a tiny nickel-plated kettle, set in the 
top of a black cage, and provided with a metal funnel 
and a removable glass one. 

Under the kettle is a small spirit lamp, also pro- 
tected by the cage. This provides the heat needed 
to boil the water in the kettle, and when steam is pro- 
duced the glass funnel conveys it in a cloud upon any 
part of the face to which it may be directed. 

It has been found invaluable also for the self-ad- 
ministration of spray remedies for such maladies as 
affect the throat, lungs, mouth, eyes and ears. 

Turkish and Russian baths are hot air and hot vapor 
baths. The effect is much the same in both. The 
virtue of such baths have been known from the earliest 
times, and among peoples varying from the cultivated 
Greeks and Romans to the Navajo, who constructs his 
rude sudatory to-day on the plains of the Southwest. 

The principle is the same in all such baths. The 
great heat stimulates the pores to expel all waste mat- 
ter in profuse sweat. It is a veritable flushing of the 
pores, and leaves the skin as clean and pure as flush- 
ing always leaves a passageway. 

If you think that you keep yourself thoroughly clean 



The Woman Beautiful. 177 

by ordinary bathing you will be dumbfounded when 
you first behold the great rolls of "dead skin" which 
the skillful attendant in the Turkish bath will remove 
from your person. 

Mark Twain wrote one of his most inimitable 
sketches in description of such an occasion. 

The delightful effects of the Turkish bath cannot be 
described, they can only be experienced. It is mar- 
velously efficacious in reducing obesity. It is good 
for all skin diseases. It purifies the blood, beautifies 
the complexion and tones up the entire system. But 
care should be exercised not to take cold after it. 

For those who find the Turkish bath too expensive, 
or who dislike to go to a public place, a folding cabinet 
bath can be purchased for home use for from $5 to 
$45. The salesman can thoroughly explain its use. 
Or, a hot vapor bath, which will serve every purpose 
can be made at home out of a good box large enough 
to accommodate a person seated on a chair. 

Lids must be fitted on the top with hinges, and cut 
out in the center to fit round the neck of the bather. 
Place under the chair a pot of boiling water on an alco- 
hol burner, or even a pail of hot water, renewed as it 
cools. 

Seat yourself upon the chair and close the lids, leav- 



178 The Woman Beautiful. 

ing the head outside. Wrap a towel about the throat 
to prevent escape of steam. Follow this bath by a 
thorough rubbing; and this is the time to apply mas- 
sage and skin foods if they are ever used. 

Frequent hot vapor baths, particularly frequent 
Turkish baths, will accomplish wonderful things in the 
way of a lovely complexion. 

Countless receipts for concoctions to put in "beauty 
baths" are published. Their merits are problematical, 
and it is only a few women who have the time or pa- 
tience to prepare them every time they take a bath. But 
there are certain simple things which can be used with- 
out much trouble or expense. 

A handful of sea salt thrown in the cold bath has a 
very tonic effect. A large package of sea salt can be 
purchased for a few cents in a drug store. 

Oatmeal bags can be made and thrown in the bath. 
They whiten the skin and make it soft and fragrant. 
Make the bags of cheesecloth, about four inches square, 
and fill with portions of the following mixture : 

Oatmeal, 5 pounds. 

Powdered Florentine orris root, 1 pound. 

Almond meal, 1 pound. 

Old Castile soap, scraped to a powder, one-half 
pound. 



The Woman Beautiful. 179 

Or plain oatmeal, bran, cornstarch, farina or linseed 
meal can be boiled for fifteen minutes, put into the bags 
and thrown in the bath. Two pounds of each should 
be used, excepting of the linseed, of which half that 
amount is sufficient. 



TO KEEP THE SKIN HEALTHY. 



The life of the skin is the natural oil which nature 
stores up under it, and supplies to the surface as re- 
quired. Until we are twenty-five we have a sufficient 
supply of the oil. But it grows less and less as we ad- 
vance in years, and after thirty nature needs assist- 
ance if we wish to preserve our freshness. 

The overheated, dry atmosphere of our rooms does 
more to exhaust the oil supply than anything else. If 
we allow the supply of oil to get too low the skin 
shrivels, the muscles relax, and we get flabby and hol- 
low-cheeked. On the contrary, by feeding the skin 
with the proper oils we can preserve almost indefin- 
itely the firmness of the flesh and the roundness and 
plumpness of the face. Even if a woman has been 
sick and become thin and emaciated, she need not 
show it in the face. 

Never clog the pores'of the skin with cheap powder, 
creams and rouge. The pity is that only too frequently 
young and pretty women cover their faces with all sorts 
of sickly stuff, not realizing the terrible future that 
awaits them. 



£ 






mE" 



Figure 21. 

For Symmetry 



The Woman Beautiful. 183 

Twenty, nay ten, years ago, the woman who pow- 
dered her face did so in utmost secrecy, aware that 
were the fact made public she ran the risk of being 
classified as "not quite nice." 

Nowadays a woman uses her powder-puff almost as 
openly as she does her pocket handkerchiefs, and it is 
the exception to find a woman who considers her toilet 
complete unless she has dusted a top dressing over her 
face. 

That powder has its uses cannot be denied; it also 
has its abuses, and its abuses far outnumber its uses. 

A girl looks tired and sallow; she dusts her face 
lightly with powder, and wipes it off again ; there is a 
velvety freshness for the time being about her com- 
plexion that pleases her, and as her skin is not used to 
powder she does not look powdered. 

The next time she is tired she resorts to more pow- 
der, and so on, till it has become a habit, and the 
powder is no longer wiped off, but allowed to stay on, 
and a thicker and thicker layer is daily needed till 
it is an impossibility to do without it, and she who 
would scorn the use of rouge and shrink from dyeing 
her hair in horror does not seem to realize that she is 
nevertheless "made up." 

The skin rapidly loses tint and texture, becoming 



184 The Woman Beautiful. 

sallow and wrinkled, so that the powder habit, once 
formed, is well-nigh impossible to leave off. 

If women who regularly use powder could only 
realize how destructive the practice is to the skin, and 
how exceedingly nasty the results are, they would 
gladly try what radiant, perfect cleanliness would do. 

Several hundred dollars' worth of rouge and pow- 
der can be outdone by a plentiful use of pure water, if 
only sensibly applied. 

One of the society beauties of New York was ab- 
solutely plain when a girl. As she grew up her mother 
applied all sorts of creams and washes to her skin, and 
confided the care of her hair to the best artists in that 
line. 

One day the girl, looking at herself in the glass, 
resolved that she would use no more of the horrid 
little messes that were forever being laid on or rubbed 
into her skin. 

She had noticed the blackness of the water in which 
her face had been washed free of all these costly im- 
purities, preparatory to a further application. 

"If I can't be pretty, at least I will be clean," she 
told her mother. 

She made a fine art of cleanliness. Her skin grew 
clearer, softer, more pearly every week. 



The Woman Beautiful. 185 

Her masses of hair, which used to be clogged with 
dyes, developed lovely tones of bronze and brown and 
gold. 

Her eyes, set in a complexion of milky transparence, 
shone liquid, large and clear. 

The eyebrows, brushed regularly, lost their tendency 
to be unduly thick and rampant near the nose, and 
meagre at the temples. Their splendid arch is now 
one of the striking features in a charming face. 

The lips grew healthily red, and plenty of fresh air 
and exercise imparted, among other good things, the 
crowning beauty of ever-varying, soft, bright tinting, 
which no one could ever mistake for an instant for the 
fixed color produced by artificial means. 

But powder has its uses. To begin with, only the 
very purest varieties should ever be used, prepared 
Fuller's earth, starch powder, and boracic powder 
being three of the very safest. 

A red and shiny nose is an abomination. This as- 
suredly may be dusted with fine powder while the 
trouble lasts, but seek the origin of the red nose and 
try to cure that. 

At a dance, too, powder is permissible, and it is 
sometimes needful in verv hot weather. 



1 86 The Woman Beautiful. 

Secondly, unbeautiful spots, too, must at times per- 
force be hidden. 

Just apply a little cold cream, wipe this off, and put 
on a little boracic powder, which is antiseptic and 
healing at the same time. But, wherever powder is 
used by clay, do not fail to wash it off at night. 

A woman who values her complexion must beware 
of a hot sun, for under its influence the skin is likely 
to become parched and coarse and freckles and tan may 
even result. It is, therefore, well to avoid the intense 
heat from the direct rays of the sun. 

The effect of cold upon the skin is what might be 
termed astringent. 

A contraction takes place, and consequently a 
smaller quantity of blood is admitted into the capillary 
vessels; also there is a diminution of the volume of 
blood to the subjacent parts farthest away from the 
great centers of heat and life, causing that numbness 
of the muscular system with which we are all familiar. 

These effects, however, are but transient ; a reaction 
occurs in the system, during which a hemorrhage that 
has checked generally returns with greater force. 

This produces in the skin that bright and ruddy 
color which so many people have upon their faces 



The Woman Beautiful. 187 

upon a frosty day, after a rapid walk in the open air. 
Cold, when the atmosphere is dry, is certainly bene- 
ficial to healthy persons, especially when plenty of ex- 
ercise is taken. 

Moist air, however, is very different in its action 
upon the constitution. When exposed to it, the mois- 
ture is absorbed in large quantities, and the body in- 
creases in weight. The complexion suffers very se- 
verely from its influence, as may be observed from the 
color of the skin of the inhabitants of Holland. 

Moist cold is the most unwholesome of all tempera- 
tures, and is injurious to nearly all constitutions, both 
old and young. 

In respect of the effect of changes of temperature 
upon the skin, a rapid transition is often dangerous. 

The change from cold to heat, as most persons 
know, is not so injurious as that from heat to cold, 
which is apt to suppress the secreting functions of the 
skin, producing sometimes inflammation of the mem- 
brane of the nose, throat, etc. 

Changes of temperature, artificially produced, as, 
for example, going out of a hot room into the cold 
night air, should be especially guarded against. They 



1 88 The Woman Beautiful. 

are, indeed, far more pernicious than the natural 
changes of the atmosphere. 

A person who is exposed alternately to heat and 
cold, to dryness and dampness, either develops a tough- 
ened cuticle or suffers continually from eruptions. 



AILMENTS OF THE SKIN. 



The skin has its own ailments,, for the sweat glands 
and grease ducts with which it is covered, after being 
more or less closed up all the winter, start off in a 
hurry to get rid of their contents of impurities. 

This leads to what are popularly called pimples, and 
in time may even cause eczema and other skin diseases. 
As a matter of fact, one reason why these eruptions 
come is because you do not bathe enough in the win- 
ter, unpleasant though it may sound. 

The remedy is obvious; you should take plenty of 
warm baths; indulge in a course of shampooing and 
graduated Turkish baths. 

Sulphur is a fine thing for skin troubles, the best 
form being either confection of sulphur or the old- 
fashioned brimstone and treacle. 

Acne, or black spots, may appear on the face in hot 
weather. These spots are formed by the accumula- 
tion of the indurated solid matter of the perspiration in 
its pores. 

It is the usual practice to force them out by pressure 



190 The Woman Beautiful. 

of the fingers, but this causes a slight swelling and 
leaves an unsightly mark for a time. 

The better and more satisfactory way to treat these 
black spots is by the use of vapor baths and friction, to 
which a mild lotion may be added to prevent their re- 
appearance. 

An excellent ointment for acme is made of flower of 
sulphur, one teaspoonful; rosewater, one pint; glycer- 
ine, one teaspoonful. 

If the specks are very obstinate and difficult to re- 
move bathe the place affected with hot water, then rub 
in a little of the following mixture with the ball of the 
thumb: Liquid ammonia, twenty drops; ether, one 
drachm; soft soap, one ounce. 

A good preparation for the same purpose is made 
by diluting a tablespooriful of gin with two tablespoon- 
fuls of cold water. Apply the mixture night and 
morning. 



THE CARE OF THE HANDS. 



No hand can be pretty without a well-manicured 
nail, and the latter goes far to make an ugly hand at- 
tractive. 

While manicuring may certainly be overdone, there 
are thousands who pay insufficient attention to the 
nails to one who pays too much. Properly cared for, 
the nail becomes a rosy little gem at the end of each 
finger tip. 

To manicure the nails, four things are necessary : 

A good pair of small, sharp scissors. 

A chamois skin nail brush. 

A nail file. 

A box of nail enamel. 

To these it is a good thing to add a second polisher, 
or a piece of chamois skin, to rub off the powder, and 
an orange stick. 

Shun the "manicure set." 

The cost is put in a showy box, which is filled with 
poor goods. Soak the hands several minutes in warm, 
soapy water ; rinse and dry thoroughly. 



192 The Woman Beautiful. 

Go around the edge of the nail with the orange stick, 
pressing back the cuticle gently, but not pressing the 
nail. Let the white half -moon at the base of the nail 
be brought into full view. 

Now, with your sharp little scissors, trim the nail in 
the shape you like. Keep one style, and the nails will 
grow to it prettily. While the long, claw nail is dis- 
gusting, a slightly pointed cut is becoming to nearly all 
hands. Especially does it give short, plump fingers a 
slender, tapering effect. Clip ragged bits of cuticle, 
but do not gouge into the flesh. If it grows over the 
nail, push it gently, but persistently back, and it can be 
trained to grow properly. 

File the rough edges of the nail. 

Dip the nail polisher in the powder and brush the 
nails until they shine like crystal. Remove all powder 
with the clean brush or chamois skin. 

Spend fifteen minutes on the nails in this fashion 
once a week. Then give them a hasty brush whenever 
you wash your hands during the week. If you wash 
your hands in an office or elsewhere where the toilet 
table is not at hand, you can polish nails which are 
habitually kept in good condition by rubbing them vig- 



The Woman Beautiful. 193 

orously in the palm of the other hand. Nails fre- 
quently polished take the polish very easily. 

Keep a cut lemon on your washstand to whiten your 
hands. Rub the juice over the hands and let it dry. 
Then wash it off. 



THE ART OF CLEANSING. 



There is a refinement of cleanliness which is rarely 
understood. How many girls, for instance, know how 
to wash their faces? Comparatively few. This may 
seem too absurd an assertion to be accepted for a mo- 
ment. Well, let us see. 

The face is more exposed to the dust and soil of 
daily life than any other part of the body. 

The hands are gloved when we go out, but the face 
is unprotected, save by a thin veil, which very often 
adds to the evil of dirt than averts it. 

Consequently, the face needs more washing than 
even the hands. And this is how it should be done. 

The water must not be quite cold in winter, and soap 
should be used but once a day. 

The fingers are better than any sponge or glove or 
flannel, and they should be used as the masseuse uses 
hers, pressing them firmly but gently into the skin, 
and passing them two or three times over every inch of 
the face. 

More particular pains should be devoted to the cor- 




Figure 22. 

How to Breathe Correctly 



The Woman Beautiful. 197 

ners, where dust is always liable to lodge, round the 
eyes, nose, and mouth. 

If a towel is used it should be of the softest and 
finest, and plenty of water must be applied after the 
soap, so as to wash it all away. 

The drying process should be equally thorough and 
effectual, a hurried rub opening the way to all sorts of 
roughness and chappings. 

It is literally true that not one girl in twenty knows 
how to wash her face, and this is why massage flour- 
ishes so much. It thoroughly cleanses. 

A good complexion is almost a certainty for any 
healthy girl who will wash her face as described above, 
every night and morning, and at least twice addition- 
ally every day. 

It is an excellent plan to rub a silk handkerchief gen- 
tly but steadily over the face after washing it. 

This will serve to dry it thoroughly, and will also 
give that polish (without shininess) to the skin that 
nature intended it to have. The forehead is particu- 
larly improved by this treatment. 

The face cannot, however, be perfectly cleansed un- 
less by hot water, and the constant use of this renders 
the skin flabby. A good toilet cream will obviate the 
necessity for the warm water and will really clear the 



198 The Woman Beautiful. 

skin more thoroughly of the atmospheric dust and dirt 
to which the face is so much exposed. 

To effect this cleansing, then, smear the face lightly 
and quickly all over with a good toilet cream, being 
careful to choose one made of vegetable, not animal, 
fat (unless you wish to encourage a hirsute growth!), 
and after it has remained on for a few minutes, wipe 
the face thoroughly free from any trace of it, and you 
will be astonished, and, perhaps, a little disgusted, too, 
at the amount of dirt that comes away with it on the 
soft towel or old handkerchief — and a clean one each 
day, please. 

After this has been done you may next, if troubled 
with lines, wrinkles, thin cheeks or lost contours, mas- 
sage the face for ten minutes or so with a good skin 
food, this being of somewhat firmer consistency than 
the soft creams or emulsions that, personally, I always 
prefer to it for cleansing purposes, though many peo- 
ple — well-known specialists among them — use a skin 
food for the latter as well. 

After the massage, leave the skin food on for another 
ten minutes or so, that the skin and tissues may absorb 
as much as possible, then wipe it off as thoroughly as 
you did the face cream. 






The Woman Beautiful. 199 

In the morning, bathe the face thoroughly for sev- 
eral minutes in cold, soft water to which has been 
added a spoonful of tincture of benzoin, lait virginal, 
or one of the popular herbal sachets, to brace the 
muscles and preserve the outline of cheeks and throat. 



THE CAUSE OF BAD COMPLEXIONS. 



Bad complexions, as a rule, are caused by the neglect 
or violation of some of the laws of health — those little 
laws which to many persons appear so insignificant, 
but in reality are of the utmost importance to our 
health and well-being. 

Wrong diet, irregular habits, impure air, late hours 
of retiring to rest, and neglect of proper exercise, are 
among those agencies which work evil against the 
health of the skin and the beauty of the complexion. 

There is an old saying about turning green with 
jealousy, which is, of course, somewhat figurative. It 
is, however, an everyday fact that people grow pale 
and wan with some bitter disappointment, grief, or 
anxiety; whilst constant worry wrinkles the skin. 

A dull, earthy complexion is frequently seen in those 
persons who suffer from indigestion. 

The primary cause is generally that of overfeeding, 
or habitually eating and drinking those things from 
which they should abstain. This sallow skin may also 
arise from the sluggish action of the liver. 

Most persons are responsible for the condition of 



The Woman Beautiful. 201 

their liver, although they are always murmuring 
against that rebellious organ. 

Proper diet, with plenty of fresh air and exercise, 
is a remedy that seldom fails to effect a cure. 

Paleness of the complexion, with whitish lips, is 
often a local indication of a general condition of debil- 
ity. No physical weakness may be apparent, but nev- 
ertheless the system is lacking in that tone which con- 
stitutes perfect health. 

Anaemia (or bloodlessness) is sometimes present 
under such conditions. This may arise from any of 
the following causes : Insufficient supply of nutritious 
food or oxygen ; dissipation, or any excessive demand 
upon the nervous centers; loss of blood or other vital 
fluid. 

Under such conditions, before the complexion can 
be improved, the general health of the body must be 
attended to, and the constitution built up by careful 
regimen. 



TO PRESERVE THE COMPLEXION. 



Perhaps no part of a woman's general appearance 
counts for more in masculine eyes, or excites more 
envy in feminine, than a really good complexion, and 
in these days there is no necessity for any one to have 
a bad one. 

Art has stepped in with such success as to have 
reached the point of effectually concealing itself, and 
the value of nature's own aids are more fully under- 
stood and profited by than ever before. 

The prescription may be said broadly to be the fol- 
lowing : Fresh air, water, exercise, sleep, a simple diet. 

Without fresh air the body cannot be healthy, and 
in the absence of good health the possibilities of good 
looks are diminished. 

Many a girl whose complexion might be clear and 
softly tinted, if she only gave it a chance, goes through 
life with a thick and muddy-looking skin, a hilly com- 
plexion that suggests the advisability of an application 
of emery paper. And why? Because she insists on 
sleeping with windows shut, and therefore breathes 
bad air for at least three-quarters of the night. 



The Woman Beautiful. 203 

Listen to what the scientists say. A room that 
measures 10 feet wide by 5 long and 20 high contains 
enough air for the consumption of one person for one 
hour. After that its freshness is gone, owing to the 
carbonic acid given off by the lungs. 

Now, if the freshness is gone at the end of one 
hour, in what condition will the air of the room be at 
the end of two hours— three hours — four hours? 
And in the morning? It is terrible to think of. 

Yet the majority of persons sleep with their bedroom 
windows and door shut. 

If only people would realize how fatally they sacri- 
fice their health in this way, every bedroom window 
would be open every night and all night long. 

The ideal room to live in is one which has a window 
at either end, so that a thorough draft of air can play 
through it in the absence of the occupants. It must 
be remembered, however, that while fresh air, and 
plenty of it, is one of the first aids to health and 
beauty, draughts are highly dangerous, and should be 
avoided when the rooms are occupied. 

Even in winter, whenever possible, the windows of 
sitting-rooms should be thrown open. 

Directly the maids come down in the morning they 
should open the windows. 



204 The Woman Beautiful. 

Immediately upon the family leaving the dining- 
room after meals the windows should be thrown open. 

When they leave the drawing-room to proceed to the 
dining-room for lunch or dinner, then the drawing- 
room windows should be opened. 

In the same way, when the ladies of a family go out 
shopping, or making calls, they should see that the 
windows of the living-rooms are opened before they 
leave the house. 

It is usual in some houses to have the gas lighted in 
bedrooms early in the evening and burning there till 
bedtime. Convenient as this certainly is, it is most 
injurious to health, and consequently to good looks. 

The gas vitiates the air, robbing it of its freshness 
and of those qualities which render it one of the prin- 
cipal nutrients of the body. 

It is infinitely better to banish gas from bedrooms, 
or, failing that, to use it as little as possible. 

Even on the staircase, with three or four gas burn- 
ers alight, the air becomes vitiated and stale. 

Lamps are much better, in default of electric light. 

A window should be kept open on the staircase in 
all but the coldest weather, to admit the fresh air and 
allow the stale to pass out. 

We should so accustom ourselves to perfect purity 






Figure 23. 

Diaphramatic Breathing. 



The Woman Beautiful. 207 

in the air we breathe that a sense of discomfort be- 
comes inseparable from being in a room where the air 
is almost exhausted of its oxygen. 

We can easily educate ourselves in this matter by 
doing our best to live constantly, night and day, in 
pure air. 

Some people are very sensitive to impure air, and it is 
to be wished that all were so, not only for their own 
sake, but for that of others. 

A thorough draft is necessary for the perfect chan- 
ging of the air in a large room. 

Both door and window should be wide open. 

The best mode of keeping a room constantly venti- 
lated without draught is to have the frame of the lower 
part supplemented by an additional piece of wood, sim- 
ilar to the rest, about five inches deep. 

This admits of the lower sash being raised without 
any draught from the bottom of the window. Air is 
admitted in the middle, where the lower sash is raised 
above the end of the top one. 

This very seldom causes a draught, unless a cold 
wind should happen to be blowing that way, when the 
window should at once be shut. 

It must not be imagined for a moment that the qual- 
ity of the complexion depends only on the amount of 



208 The Woman Beautiful. 

pure air absorbed by the pores of the skin on the face 
only. 

On the contrary, every pore on the whole body con- 
tributes to the result. We breathe through the skin 
all over our bodies. 

If we take in bad air or insufficient air in this way, 
it soon tells on the face. If good, and plenty of it, it 
tells in a very different way. 

Man was not originally intended for a clothes-wear- 
ing animal. Nature meant him to take air in freely 
through all the pores of his skin. 

Our necessary clothing robs us of much of this. 
But we can all dress lightly and suitably, instead of 
thickly and unsuitably, to these conditions. 

Most of us, and especially elderly people, wear far 
too much clothing. This is doubly harassing to the 
functions of the skin. 

Not only do the layers of garments prevent the air 
from getting to the pores and feeding them with what 
they need, but they also prevent the skin from throw- 
ing off and getting rid of those noxious exhalations 
which come to the surface and injure health if they 
cannot escape. 

Too many clothes by clay, and too many bedclothes 
at night, are the rule. We should accustom ourselves 



The Woman Beautiful. 209 

to the minimum of both, and never carry an unneces- 
sary ounce. 

The bicycle has done good service in ridding women 
of superfluous underskirts. Before its time three were 
the rule, being one too many in winter and three too 
many in summer. 

In hot weather one thin blanket should be quite suf- 
ficient, but this will not be found enough by those who 
have accustomed themselves to sleep under four or 
five in winter. 

Thick clothing and supererogatory blankets prevent 
the skin from absorbing air, and also obstruct the cells, 
clogging them with their own secretions". 

After fresh air comes the daily bath in the list of 
essentials for a good complexion. It may be taken 
either warm or cold, according to the constitution of 
the individual. 

When impure, the water may be the means of pro- 
ducing pimples and rashes; while when hard it tends 
to roughen a delicate skin. 

For toilet use, there is nothing better than rain 
water. When this cannot be obtained, a good plan to 
soften hard water is to put a tablespoonful of borax or 
a bag of bran or a little anticalcine in the water basin, 



210 The Woman Beautiful. 

In regard to soap, care should be exercised that only 
the purest kinds are used. 

Much injury is frequently caused to the skin by 
washing with bad soaps; highly colored and scented 
cakes are generally the worst offenders. 

The best soaps are curd, oatmeal, or glycerine. 

Dispensing with soap for the face, and substituting 
oatmeal is a great help in preserving a good complex- 
ion. 

If oatmeal is used, it should be made into a paste in 
the palm of the hands and then rubbed over the face. 

An air bath comes only second to a water bath in 
efficacy for the skin. The face and hands are the only 
portions of the body that enjoy it daily. 

When possible, the whole surface of the skin should 
be exposed for a few moments to the action of the air 
in a room where the atmosphere is fresh. 

The few moments after a bath when the skin has 
been freed from soap and is glowing from the rubbing 
of the towel are valuable indeed, but this is little recog- 
nized. 

The refreshing influence of an air bath may be tested 
for itself, and after one or two trials it will be found 
so valuable that it will be enjoyed as often as possible. 

But the use of water internally as well as externally 



The Woman Beautiful. 211 

is highly to be commended, and at least two pints daily 
should be drank. 

Women, as a rule, take far too little fluid, and most 
physicians are agreed as to the benefits to be derived 
from drinking a glass of water, or more, at bedtime 
and in the morning, fasting. 

The value of exercise has already been emphasized. 
If regularly persisted in, the complexion will be greatly 
benefited. 

Do not be deluded by the idea that your housekeep- 
ing duties are a good substitute for a system of physi- 
cal culture. 

Many a busy, thrifty woman, who spends the morn- 
ing hours in happily looking after her home, trotting 
upstairs to the linen cupboard, downstairs with sheets 
to mark or mend, up again to put them away into the 
bathroom, and generally all over the place, being on 
foot for a couple of hours or more, is under the im- 
pression that she has had quite the right thing in the 
sliape of exercise. 

This is quite a mistake. Only a very few muscles 
are brought into play and . the whole body is not 
strengthened as it undoubtedly will be by adopting a 
scheme of physical exercises and religiously carrying it 
out. 



212 The Woman Beautiful. 

It is a good plan after perspiring to wash in tepid 
water to which a little oatmeal has been added. 

Sleep and diet are so very important aids to a good 
complexion that special chapters must be devoted to 
them. 



SLEEPING FOR BEAUTY. 



Sound and refreshing sleep has a most beneficial 
effect upon the complexion. The habit of falling 
asleep at a few moments' notice is one to be encouraged 
in the interests of health, a more important considera- 
tion than that of mere coloring, but one which is 
inextricably bound up with it. 

After unusual fatigue, the face of even a young 
woman has a drawn and tired look which ages it pal- 
pably. 

Even a quarter of an hour's sound sleep removes this 
and replaces it by the soft commingling of white 
and palest pink which is the characteristic of the finest 
blond complexions, or the rose and olive of the bru- 
nette. 

Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless true that 
while rest from extreme exercise after eating is im- 
portant, sleep is as bad as vigorous exercise of either 
mind or body. 

Good digestion cannot take place during sleep. It 
is dependent upon the activity of the nervous system 
for its proper performance. The same nerve which 



214 The Woman Beautiful. 

secures activity for the respiratory organs controls the 
muscular activity of the stomach. 

During sleep both respiration and circulation are 
greatly lessened in vigor. That the activity of the di- 
gestive organs is decreased at the same time, being 
controlled by the same nerves, is shown by actual ex- 
periments to be true. 

Most people who can sleep for an hour immediately 
after taking food, awake feeling anything but re- 
freshed. In the case of old people it may sometimes 
be beneficial, or, at least, not harmful, but it must not 
long be continued. 

But sleep is a powerful aid to beauty and health, and 
it should be indulged in liberally, provided that no ex- 
ercise immediately precedes it. Sleep is nature's great 
restorer. 

The persons who enjoy the best health and carry 
their years the lightest are those who sleep well. Our 
bodies are constantly undergoing a waste of material 
and power, and sleep holds the next place to food in the 
reparation of this loss. 

"There is," says Dr. Forbes Winslow, "no fact more 
clearly established in the physiology of man than this, 
that the brain expends its energies and itself during the 
hours of wakefulness, and that these are recuperated 




Figure 24. 

Aiding the Internal Muscles in Deep Breathing. 



The Woman Beautiful. 217 

during sleep. If the recuperation does not equal the 
expenditure, the brain withers — this is insanity. Thus 
it is that, in early English history, persons who were 
condemned to death by being prevented from sleeping, 
always died raving maniacs ; thus it is, also, that those 
who are starved to death become insane — the brain is 
not nourished, and they cannot sleep. The practical 
inferences are these: 1st. Those who think most, who 
do most brain work, require most sleep. 2nd. That 
time "saved" from necessary sleep is infallibly destruc- 
tive to mind, body and estate. 

Another medical authority says that the man who 
disregards the demands of his mind and body for the 
amount of rest which nature claims suffers sooner or 
later, and pays dearly for having abused this prime 
rule of health. 

Nature is the best bookkeeper the world ever saw. 
You may overdraw your account, but you always pay- 
back the last penny, and often give up the pound of 
flesh — sometimes even more than the pound. 

A man may think he can steal from nature, but 
he cannot. I do not think a person should be waked 
at morning, for this reason — when a man falls asleep 
he is in the shop for repairs, as the railroad men say. 

His frame and all his intricate machinery is being 



21 8 The Woman Beautiful. 

overhauled and made ready for the next day's work. 
The wear of the previous day is being repaired. 

Nature is doing that herself. She knows what the 
tired frame needs, just as she knows how to make the 
heart throb and send the blood coursing through the 
veins. 

The posture of the body has much to do with ob- 
taining sound, healthy sleep. A person should not lie 
in a curled-up, cramped position, and never on the 
back. 

Sleeping with the spinal column straight has a ten- 
dency to make the carriage more erect. It is also the 
narcotic position — it induces sleep. 

The right side is the most suitable to repose upon, 
is enabled to gravitate the food more readily into the 
is enables to gravitate the food more readily into the 
intestines ; also the liver does not press so heavily upon 
the top of the bowels. 

Some people sleep best when the head is propped up 
with high pillows ; while others prefer to lie almost 
flat upon the bed. Large pillows may make one 
round-shouldered and are best avoided. 

For persons suffering from sleeplessness, high pil- 
lows are, perhaps, an advantage, as by raising the head 



The Woman Beautiful. no. 

they allow the blood to flow from the brain ; but under 
ordinary circumstances a low pillow is preferable. 

Every sleeper should have a bedroom equal to a 
measurement of ten feet each way. 

As it is most important that there should be plenty 
of ventilation, a window ought always to be open at 
the top for the space of some four inches. 

Nothing is so essential for healthful, beauty-giving 
sleep as thorough ventilation in the bedroom. The 
lungs are good feeders, and faithful, tireless workers. 
They are busy all night. 

Give them good food — pure air — and plenty of it. 
The work of the heart — a free circulation — and a clear 
complexion are dependent largely upon this. 

The lungs contribute an important share to that part 
of Nature's art-work which paints the rose upon the 
cheeks and ripens the cherry about the lips. 

Use as little bed-covering as you can. The bed and 
bedclothes should be well aired every morning. 

The fewer persons who sleep in the same apartment 
the better. 

Do not get into the habit of sleeping upon one side 
only. Its ultimate effect is to make one lop-sided ; one 
shoulder droops, one lung has less action, one leg con- 



220 The Woman Beautiful. 

tracts, the nose leans to one side, one eye becomes a 
fraction smaller, etc. 

It has been said, "Six hours' sleep for a man, seven 
for a woman, and eight for a fool." But this is an 
exceedingly foolish dictum, and one that would be very 
unwise to follow. 

The amount of sleep depends greatly upon the 
health, temperament and constitution of the individual. 

Frederick the Great is said to have allowed himself 
only five hours' sleep; John Hunter, five hours; Gen- 
eral Elliott, the hero of Gibraltar, four hours; while 
the Duke of Wellington, during the Peninsular War, 
had even less. 

However, there are very few "Iron Dukes," and 
while four or five hours' sleep may be quite sufficient 
for some individuals, eight or even nine hours' repose 
is most necessary for others. 

Persons with nervous temperaments require the 
most sleep. 

It may, however, be taken as the general rule that 
the average man ought to have seven hours' sleep in the 
twenty-four, more especially those who perform much 
bodily or mental labor; a woman requires eight hours. 

Dr. Baillie says that so long as sufficient sleep be ob- 
tained during the night, it matters not which of the 



The Woman Beautiful. 221 

five, six or seven hours are selected for the purpose, 
but the sleep before midnight is usually considered the 
''beauty" sleep. 

Good sleepers are good workers. Light sleepers 
should doze half an hour after their principal meal, also 
those who have weak digestion. 

As regards children, they, of course, need consider- 
ably more sleep than adults. 

In infants at the breast consciousness is so feebly de- 
veloped that a very brief period of waking hours is suf- 
ficient to produce exhaustion. 

During the first four or six weeks of life there ought 
to be not more than two waking hours through the 
day, and as the baby grows this period of consciousness 
should graduallly increase. 

Between the ages of one and two years, children re- 
quire from 18 to 16 hours of sleep; between two and 
three years of age, 17 to 15 hours are needed; between 
four and six years, 15 to 13 hours; between six and 
nine years, 12 to 10 hours ; and between nine and four- 
teeen years, from 10 to 8 hours. 



TO CURE SLEEPLESSNESS. 



Amongst the many enemies of sleep are anxiety, 
care, sorrow, and overstudy. 

A great deal of sleeplessness is also due to the ab- 
surd custom of late suppers, by which the organs of 
digestion are kept at work when they should be at rest. 

Extreme physical fatigue may sometimes be the fac- 
tor for producing insomnia. There are many cases, 
for example, of cyclists who, after indulging in a very 
long ride, have not been able to obtain sound sleep for 
several nights. 

Cold, too, is frequently the cause of sleeplessness, as 
the cooling of the extremities always involves a greater 
flow of blood to the brain. 

The strongest individual cannot afford to lose a 
night's sleep; there is always a physical penalty to pay. 

There is an old maxim that "prevention is better 
than cure." To guard against sleeplessness avoid sup- 
pers, at least within three hours of retiring to rest; 
take care not to tax or exercise the brain during even- 
ing hours; banish all worldly affairs from the mind 
immediately you lie down to sleep. 



The Woman Beautiful. 223 

Do not try to go to sleep, as that is a mental effort 
and taxes the brain, but let sleep come as a matter of 
course. When sleep, however, refuses to visit our 
waking eyes, a good way of inducing it is to tire the 
brain, without in any way taxing it. 

This may often be accomplished by counting very 
slowly up to a hundred. 



DIETING FOR THE COMPLEXION. 



Young women seem to imagine that youth and 
health will last forever, and they play sad tricks with 
their digestion, sometimes going without food for 
hours together, sometimes offering their splendid ap- 
petite the moult of a penny bun, instead of the good 
midday meal it expects and deserves. 

The wonder is that so few people generally die of 
neuralgia and meningitis when they lay themselves 
out to invite these dispensations. 

Women abuse themselves and their own constitu- 
tions frightfully, and they do not know it. 

All who covet a good complexion should pay great 
attention to the matter of their diet. 

This may, perhaps, involve a little daily self-denial, 
but those who exercise it will be more than recom- 
pensed by the benefits obtained. 

In the first place, tea and coffee must be given up, 
as they are both detrimental to a healthy complexion. 

Tea is one of the most frequent causes of indiges- 
tion; and coffee, when freely indulged in, produces 



The Woman Beautiful. 225 

paleness, besides accelerating the wasting of the organs 
in persons of a nervous temperament. 

Alcoholic beverages are also best left alone by those 
who desire a clear complexion, heavy wines and beers 
being especially pernicious. 

Pies and tarts must never be touched. 

All starchy foods, including even bread, should be 
eaten in great moderation. 

Butter, and diet of a greasy nature, ought to be 
taken very sparingly, as they are often the cause of a 
dirty, grimy appearance of the skin, and sometimes 
produce blotches and eruptions. 

Sugar, jams, and preserves should also be taken in 
the greatest moderation. 

Pickles, vinegar, and all acid foods and condiments, 
ought to be entirely abstained from. 

Pickles are the enemy of the human race. There is 
absolutely nothing that can be said in favor of them. 
There is something peculiar and abnormal in the crav- 
ing for them, and this is especially true of school chil- 
dren, who, of all persons, ought to be the last to eat 
them. 

In a medical treatise, by Dr. S. Rowbotham, the 
following interesting statement appears : "Persons of a 
dull, cadaverous appearance, with harsh, rough skins, 



226 The Woman Beautiful. 

who are thin and bony, and continually troubled with 
some complaint or other, I have always found to be 
greatly attached to food of a solid, earthy nature^ such 
as bread, puddings, pies, tarts, cakes, and flour prepa- 
rations in general. 

"I do not mean to assert that such persons never par- 
take of much of other substances, for they are gen- 
erally fond of rich, strong food as well; but that 
bread and pastry, composed of oats or other grain, con- 
stitute the basis of their diet. 

"The same may be said of such as are troubled with 
bad teeth, ulcers, pimples and blotches of every kind; 
and who are susceptible to headaches, cold, etc. ; and 
more particularly is this the case when the individuals 
are of costive habits of body, because then much in- 
jurious matter is retained that would otherwise have 
been discharged. 

"On the contrary, those who are bright and lively in 
appearance, who have clear and shining skins, full in 
flesh, bones small and flexible, seldom troubled with 
disease of any kind, and who are generally stirring and 
animated, I have always found to partake more of 
fresh vegetables, greens, fruits, and animal food, fish, 
eggs, and all kinds of albuminous and saccharine sub- 










Figure 25. 

An Incorrect Poise. 



The Woman Beautiful. 229 

stances, and who care but little for gross, solid, grain 
food." 

The question of what to eat and what to drink, when 
debarring oneself from so many common articles of 
diet, may at first sight appear a difficult problem to 
solve. However, it will be seen that there still re- 
mains a bountiful supply of all things needful in the 
way of food and drink. 

Tea and coffee are not the only beverages that can 
be placed upon the breakfast and tea table. There is 
cocoa, which is harmless and nutritious; but warm 
water is even better still. 

This materially assists the digestive organs to do 
their work, besides purifying the liver. It is. there- 
fore, most helpful in preserving a good complexion. 

Milk is suited for most constitutions, and conducive 
to softening and whitening the skin. 

In place of so much bread, cake, and starchy food, 
as is usually eaten, fruit, either raw or cooked, should 
be freely partaken of at every meal. It is nature's 
physic, and, indeed a veritable elixir of life. 

If people were to more frequently eat fruit, they 
would save many doctors' bills, and need no cosmetics 
to add artificial charms to the skin. 

Oranges, strawberries, apples, grapes, bananas, rai- 



230 The Woman Beautiful. 

sins, and other fruits, purify the blood, brace up the 
nervous system, regulate the digestive organs, and 
bring a glow of health to the cheeks. 

All the sugar that we need to take into our bodies 
is contained in fruit, therefore, when ripe fruit is eaten, 
boycott the sugar basin. 

All kinds of green vegetables should be eaten plen- 
tifully; but potatoes, parsnips and turnips are best 
eaten in moderation. 

Spinach is most excellent for improving the com- 
plexion and curing a disordered liver. It contains a 
large quantity of iron, which can be easily assimilated. 

Bingo, the chemist, says that spinach contains more 
iron to the square inch than the most renowned fer- 
ruginous remedies. 

Always avoid pork, veal, lobsters, crabs, oysters and 
all kinds of shell fish if you wish to preserve a good 
complexion. 

Never eat a heavy supper. The stomach gets tired 
like any other muscle, and if it labors during the 
large share of the night in getting rid of a heavy 
meal of more or less indigestible food taken shortly 
before retiring, it is in no condition to receive another 
generous meal in the morning. 

Much better is it to eat a light supper, or in many 



The Woman Beautiful. 231 

cases omit the meal entirely, and then there will be 
a splendid appetite for the morning meal. 

Breakfast should be a nourishing meal, for the 
system needs to be replenished after the night's fast. 
The food should be easy of digestion, because nerve 
energy and physical force are required for the fore- 
noon's work. The woman who has eaten breakfast 
must feel just like taking up the day's duties, and be 
fresh in body and mind. She will not be in this con- 
dition if she eats largely of food that is difficult of 
digestion. 

Vegetables are rather difficult of digestion, especially 
as ordinarily prepared, and they are mostly not very 
nourishing. Hence, they are not the best food for 
breakfast. 

Grains, on the other hand, are both easy of diges- 
tion and very nourishing. They must form the staple 
food at the ideal breakfast. 

But here another difficulty presents itself. Grains to 
be made perfectly digestible require to be either baked 
thoroughly throughout in a slow oven, or boiled some 
four or five hours. 

A great deal of the dyspepsia so prevalent at the 
present time has its origin in the use of starchy foods 
not properly cooked. Most of the different prepared 



i^i The Woman Beautiful. 

ten or fifteen minutes cooking really ought to be 
cooked several hours, and this makes them less suitable 
as breakfast dishes, unless they are thoroughly cooked 
the day before, and then warmed for breakfast. 

Good bread will naturally form a part of the meal. 
If you would have it in the most digestible form, cut 
it when stale into slices of the usual size, and toast 
throughout in a slow oven. This is called zweiback 
(twice baked) and is most excellent, especially for those 
who have good teeth. 

No breakfast is complete without fruit, which to do 
the most good should be eaten with little or no sugar. 



FOR THIN PEOPLE. 



Physical exercise alone will not make a thin woman 
stout, but it will help to fill out the hollows, and is one 
of the essentials in acquiring a beautiful form. There 
are some important hints that a woman must remem- 
ber if she wishes to change her angularity for rounded 
curves. Excessive thinness often arises from some 
fault in the digestion, and the diaphragmatic breath- 
ing exercises will be of inestimable advantage in such 
cases ; but more often it is to be attributed to worry, to 
unrest, to discontentment or to want of sufficient sleep. 
Cultivate a happy frame of mind and eat or drink those 
things which encourage the secretion of fat. Fresh 
eggs, boiled or poached, should form a portion of every 
breakfast. 

At dinner eat as much soup, meat and fish as you 
like, but do not omit to eat rice with the fowl, mac- 
aroni, sweet pastry, creams, etc. 

At dessert, savory biscuits, and farinaceous prepara- 
tions which contain eggs and sugar. 

This diet may seem limited, but it is capable of 
grains on the market advertised as ready for use after 



234 The Woman Beautiful. 

great variation, and comprises the whole animal king- 
dom. 

Drink beer by preference; otherwise, Bordeaux or 
wine from the south of France. 

Avoid acids, except salads, which gladden the heart. 

Eat sugar with your fruit, if it admits of it. 

Do not take baths too cold ; breathe the fresh air of 
the country as often as you can; eat plenty of grapes 
when in season; do not fatigue yourself. 

Be in bed and asleep at eleven o'clock; on extra 
nights not later than one o'clock. 

A general diet for thin persons should be selected 
from the following : 

Fresh meats, game, poultry, fish, eggs, butter, 
cream, jellies, custards, ripe fruits, rice, sago, pota- 
toes, carrots, turnips, asparagus, cauliflower. Cocoa 
or chocolate is better than tea or cofTee. 

Thin persons should avoid all kinds of salted meats 
and fish, pickles and lemons and never drink sour 
wines, acids or vinegar. 

However hungry you may be, do not eat the food 
too quickly when you get it. 

Half the quantity will satisfy you and do you twice 
the amount of good if eaten slowly. 

Observe, if your meal be interrupted for ten or fifteen 



The Woman Beautiful. 235 

minutes, after you have eaten perhaps about half the 
usual quantity you will feel satisfied. 

It is for this reason the appetite subsides in propor- 
tion as the food combines with the gastric fluid pre- 
viously in the stomach. 

When we eat too fast, before this combination is 
completed, so much is taken that the whole gastric fluid 
is not sufficient to effect the due alteration on it. 

When we eat slowly, the appetite abates before the 
stomach becomes overcharged, for while digestion is 
going on, and the gastric fluid is only supplied in pro- 
portion as the fresh food comes in contact with the 
coats of the stomach, it combines with the food as it is 
formed, and always excites the appetite. 

This is the reason why a few mouthfuls taken a 
little before dinner will often destroy the appetite. 

Frequent interruptions in eating are most injurious, 
because people are thus prevented from taking the 
proper quantity of food. 

When sitting down to a meal, eat till satisfied, but 
eat slowly, if you do not wish to suffer with indi- 
gestion. 

If the thinness is a constitutional tendency, suitable 
physical culture and diet are the only things that will 
affect it. 



236 The Woman Beautiful. 

Facial massage is the only thing which will help the 
face, rounding out hollow places and eradicating 
wrinkles. Skin foods add to the benefits of the mas- 
sage, though they are useless without it. Every thin 
woman should learn facial massage and apply it nightly. 
There is nothing difficult about it, and there is no dan- 
ger of injuring the face in any way. The face should 
first have a hot soap bath, the soap being rinsed thor- 
oughly off before drying. Then dip your finger tips 
in some pure cream or oil, and begin the massage at 
the bottom of the face. Rub upward with a gentle, 
rolling motion; rolling up from the mouth and out 
from the center of the face. Pay special attention to 
the wrinkles, as it is the massage and the cream which 
will fill them up. One treatment from a masseuse 
will enable you to see how she manipulates the face. 
The object is to get the cream worked thoroughly into 
the skin, and when this is done the massage is over 
for that evening. 

A great deal is said of the impurity and danger of 
face lotions. As a matter of fact, if you want a 
pure face cream go to any reputable druggist and tell 
him that you want a perfectly pure cream, something 
put up by a high-class house. For a dollar you can 
get a bottle containing sufficient to last you a year. 




Figure 26. 

The Proper Poise of the Body. 



The Woman Beautiful. 239 

It is not necessary to smear it on the face. The 
finger tips need only be moistened with it. Cocoanut 
butter, cocoanut oil, and high-grade olive oil, from 
which the coloring matter has been extracted, are all 
useful skin foods, and almond oil is perhaps the best 
of all. 

Some skins have a tendency to a growth of hair 
when rubbed with cream and oils. It is impossible to 
tell what oils will foster this growth except by experi- 
ment. 

Effects must be watched, and an immediate change 
made to some other oil if one proves unsatisfactory. 
Almond oil very rarely produces hair. 

It must be remembered that skin food will add 
nothing to the weight. It develops no muscle. But it 
feeds the glands of the skin with the oils which they 
need, improves the texture of the skin, and gives it a 
plump, rounded appearance. Other parts of the body 
can be developed by exercise, but there is no exercise 
for the face except by massage. 

If you wish to make your own face creams here are 
two recipes for pure, harmless emollients which can 
be made at home at a trifling expense : 

Tannin, half a gramme. 

Lanoline, 30 grammes. 



240 The Woman Beautiful. 

Oil of sweet almonds, 20 grammes. 

Melt two last in double boiler, stirring till well 
mixed, and beating in tannin as it cools. 

Fresh lard, 100 grammes. 

Alcohol, 80 per cent., 200 grammes. 

Essence of rosemary, 11 drops. 

Essence of bergamot, 1 1 drops. 

Try out lard, adding a bit of powdered gum cam- 
phor. Strain, beat in alcohol, and just before cream 
congeals stir in essences. 

Massage will also assist in developing a small bust, 
and there are certain high-grade bust developing 
creams sold in this country which really have an 
effect. But the true development of the bust must 
come from physical culture. 

Constant, daily, vigorous exercise of the under- 
lying muscles of the bust and chest vastly increases 
the flow of blood to those regions. 

The action of the whole adjacent circulatory sys- 
tem is immensely stimulated, and this gradually de- 
velops the glands forming the bust. 

If the thin woman is strong and well a cold plunge 
bath is a splendid thing for her, necessitating, as it 
does, the quick, hard rubbing to remove the chill. 
Anything which brings the blood to the surface in a 



The Woman Beautiful. 241 

warm glow is beneficial to thin and stout alike. It 
builds up muscle in both, and in the latter removes the 
fat, which is only waste matter lodged there, and not 
removed by ordinary exercise. The continuous pump- 
ing of the blood to certain parts will develop those 
parts. If you do not react after the bath, that is, if 
the warm glow does not come and you remain chilled 
and depressed, yon should not take it until your gen- 
eral health is improved. Perhaps, however, you can 
cool the water of your bath gradually with no un- 
pleasant effect, and, at any rate, cold water should be 
dashed freely, at least once a day, upon the breast and 
throat. 



FOR STOUT PEOPLE. 



Fat people who wish to be less corpulent must take 
plenty of exercise and less sleep. 

As to diet, it is impossible to be dogmatic on the 
subject. Most women have more or less work to do, 
and they must eat enough to keep up their strength. 
Neither can they make the pursuit of beauty the only, 
or even the chief, end of their lives. If they board, as 
many women do, they have to eat what is placed before 
them. 

But there are certain simple rules which you can 
easily follow, and it is not of much use to go into the 
matter at all unless you do follow them. The first is 
both the hardest and most important of all. 

Shun candy as you would poison. 

There must be no dallying with the tempter. Total 
abstinence is your only salvation. Every drop of 
sweet is straightway deposited on your person in layers 
of fat. 

After you have trained yourself to let candy alone, 
begin on desserts, and continue till you have grad- 



The Woman Beautiful. 243 

ually banished all sweets from your menu. You can 
make it a habit of your life to do without sweets. 

The brain has a curious way of running in grooves. 
The first time you refuse chocolate creams will be the 
hardest. It will grow steadily easier; and you will 
have the satisfaction of knowing that you are gaining 
in will power, character and health, as well as looks. 

The fats and starches make fat, like sweets. 

Potatoes are all starch. Avoid them as much as 
possible. They are such a constant article of food 
that they are very dangerous. 

Most of the root vegetables, and peas, beans and 
corn are starchy and fattening, but they are not placed 
before you three times a day, like potatoes. 

If possible, eat only the coarse breads — whole wheat, 
graham, Ralston, and so on. Fine white bread is fat- 
tening. If you must eat it, it is less injurious toasted. 

All the breakfast cereals are fattening. 

Beer is absolutely forbidden ; it is worse than candy. 

Cream and chocolate are fattening, but skimmed 
milk is a good drink for you. 

Dr. Weir Mitchell declares that when used for the 
only, or principal food, it will reduce flesh half a 
pound daily. Avoid all pastry, and also macaroni, and 
the rest of the Italian pastes. 



244 The Woman Beautiful. 

Eat only at mealtime. Nibbling between meals is a 
great promoter of fat. 

Drink nothing with your meals. 

This is a most important rule. If you cannot live 
up to it completely, come as near to it as you can. 
Drink no water, and only one cup of tea or coffee. 

The person righting fat is reduced largely to a meat 
diet. All the lean meats except pork, all fish except 
salmon, sardines, mackerel and eels, which are too 
rich and oily, are on your menu. 

Eggs and skimmed milk and coarse breads are on 
your list and you should eat very freely of salads 
and greens; sorrel, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes and 
watercress. 

Cheese is permitted, nuts and raisins, figs and dates, 
and nearly all the fresh fruits, especially apples, 
oranges, pineapples, plums and cherries. Bananas are 
fattening. 

If this menu looks meager to you, remember that 
lovely Lillian Russell has kept her youth and beauty 
for years upon a scantier bill of fare than this. She 
prefers beauty to chocolate creams. 

When you remember how quickly an animal can be 
fattened for the market by feeding with just the right 



The Woman Beautiful. 245 

kind of food, you will realize how much fat you avoid 
by excluding the fat-producing foods. 

Dr. J. R. Hayes, medical examiner of the Bureau of 
Pensions at Washington, states that it has been proved 
that a deposit of one quarter of an ounce of fat daily 
will increase the weight fifty-seven pounds in ten 
years. Try to keep off that quarter of an ounce a 
day. 

Facial massage will remove deposits of flesh from 
the face, but this is something which must be learned 
from a competent masseuse. 

If you have time, learn facial massage yourself. No 
accomplishment could be more useful. If you cannot 
do that, save money from your clothes to take treat- 
ments now and then, and try to learn all the tricks of 
her trade from the masseuse, so as to apply them your- 
self. 

Massage rollers come in different shapes and sizes, 
and the person of whom you buy one can usually direct 
you as to its use. They come in sets of different 
sizes for different parts of the body, but one roller of 
medium size will do for both face and body. It will 
cost you from $1 to $1.50. The best is a spiral-shaped 
roller. 



246 The Woman Beautiful. 

All movements on the face should be outward and 
upward from the mouth. 

The double chin is a great beauty destroyer. The 
first faint suspicion of double chin in a plump young 
girl is rather piquant and attractive. But, beware! 
Nothing gives an old, heavy look to the face more 
quickly. One corrective exercise is as follows : 

Close the eyes to prevent dizziness. Roll head clear 
around, coming to rest with head on breast. Repeat 
in opposite direction. This is a rather monotonous, 
but an easy exercise. You can repeat it a hundred 
times in the course of the evening, alternating it with 
some of the more strenuous trunk exercises, which 
leave you a little out of breath. 

Grasp a portion of the flesh between the thumb and 
first finger. Twist first one way and then another. 
In this way cover the whole region of the chin and 
lower edges of the cheek. This takes a good deal of 
time. You can accustom yourself to practice it as 
you sit reading. Be careful not to pinch too hard, as 
the flesh of some people turns black and blue very 
easily. 

Do not consume large doses of vinegar under the 
delusion that by so doing the weight can be reduced; 



The Woman Beautiful. 247 

many an early death has resulted from the use of 
acids for this purpose. 

Instead, try a glass of dry sherry, with a teaspoon- 
ful of red quinine in it every morning an hour be- 
fore breakfast. Above all, do not forget to take 
plenty of exercise. 

Dr. Emmet Deensmore says that the exciting cause 
of obesity is the ingestion of more food than the sys- 
tem requires, which results in the failure of the sys- 
tem to adequately throw off its waste matter. 

In other words, the doctor means that excessive 
plumpness is caused by overeating; its remedy, there- 
fore, is apparent. 



TO REMOVE FRECKLES. 



Freckles were at one time considered to add beauty 
to the face, but nowadays they are looked upon as a 
disfigurement. 

They are far from pretty, and when the nose is red 
as well, a woman has considerable cause for discontent. 
If your nose is red look to your digestion, or the tight- 
ness of your corsets. If it freckles easily apply a 
freckle lotion. 

With the shape of the nose you may not tamper 
with impunity, but its complexion may be improved. 
If the nose is chronically red, either the digestion is 
impaired, or tight lacing is responsible. Diet and ex- 
ercise will cure the one, and common sense the other. 

Freckles consist of an increase of the pigment or col- 
oring matter of the skin in small spots. They are 
caused in most cases by exposure of the skin to the 
sun. 

The finest skins are the most subject to them, which 
ought to be some consolation to those ladies who suffer 
from them. 

It is not generally known that there are two varie- 



The Woman Beautiful. 249 

ties of these disagreeable little spots : — summer freckles 
and cold freckles. 

The summer freckles result from the action of the 
sun and heat during the summer season, and disappear 
with the hot weather; while the cold freckles occur 
at all periods of the year, and are constitutional with 
many persons. 

People of fair and florid complexions are more 
subject to freckles than those possessing skins of a 
darker hue. 

Freckles are difficult to remove when once they have 
made their appearance; but, nevertheless, not impos- 
sible. 

There are many well-recommended recipes for re- 
moving freckles. The following is, perhaps, the best : 

Once ounce lemon juice, quarter dram powdered 
borax, half dram pulverized sugar. Mix all, let it 
stand in glass for a few days, then apply it, and let it 
dry on the skin. Or, apply with a linen cloth two 
tablespoonfuls of grated horseradish mixed with a tea- 
cupful of sour milk. 

The nose is very apt to freckle, even when no other 
parts of the face are affected in the same way. 

These little brown spots can be removed by putting 
on the nose a little of this lotion : 



250 The Woman Beautiful. 

Lemon juice, three ounces; vinegar, one ounce; rose- 
water, one ounce; Jamaica rum, one ounce. 

Apply this with a sponge several times a day. When 
the face is washed care must be taken to dry the nose 
downward, not upward, and whenever the nose is 
touched with the hand or handkerechief, the same ad- 
vice must be borne in mind, or very ugly results will 
follow. 



TO PREVENT WRINKLES. 



It is a mistake to suppose that the woman whose 
face is always "wreathed in smiles" is never troubled 
about wrinkles. 

Too much passivity of disposition deprives the 
countenance of the charm of mobility. To be always 
smiling makes wrinkles as surely as to be always 
frowning; and a chronic smile becomes eventually un- 
attractive, however white and perfect may be the teeth 
it shows, however charming the curve of the lips. 

The old clays of "prunes and prisms," with many 
other of the old beauty maxims, have passed away. 

Women are no longer afraid to smile often for fear 
of producing wrinkles. A passive, emotionless life is 
not now considered conducive to good looks. 

On the contrary, people who feel vividly are those 
who look young longest. 

They do not suffer from the trick of the mannered 
smile that so often leaves an impress of artificiality, 
and even insincerity, on the countenance, to say noth- 
ing of its wrinkles on the skin. 

More impressible natures, with their quick alterna- 



252 The Woman Beautiful. 

tions of mood, their ready laughter, their sympathy 
in the joys, and sorrows of others, their deeply felt 
loves and friendships, write such a changing, fleeting, 
ever-varying record on the face that wrinkles have 
no time to carve themselves. 

It is the fixed simper, the constant frown, the sour 
and fretted peevishness, that bring them out too soon. 

There are several causes from which wrinkles arise. 
The chief one is, of course, advancing years. 

Longfellow sublimely puts it : "The years, like birds, 
have stooped to drink the brightness of her eyes, and 
left their footprints on the margin." 

A physiological explanation of these facial lines is 
that as age advances the fat immediately under the skin 
becomes absorbed, and consequently the cuticle loosens 
and wrinkles are thus formed. 

The maintenance of natural fat will therefore delay 
the wrinkling of the skin. Wrinkles often make their 
appearance after a long illness, and then disappear 
when returning health renews the lost fat to the cheeks. 

As regards premature wrinkles, which sometimes 
make their appearance after the age of thirty, they 
are frequently caused by care, sorrow, low spirits and 
ill health. 



The Woman Beautiful. 253 

Sometimes, however, they are formed through in- 
habiting overheated rooms. 

Gas fires and stoves will hasten the formation of 
wrinkles, unless care is taken to counteract the heat 
and dryness of the atmosphere of the apartment by the 
free evaporation of water. 

Wrinkles are sometimes produced about the mouth 
by collapse of the cheeks from loss of the teeth. The 
easiest and best way to remedy these defects, is to have 
new teeth inserted. 

Premature or emotional wrinkles may be very often 
removed by manipulating the affected parts with a 
small quantity of pure glycerine or fine olive oil, taken 
upon the fingers. 

The contracted or depressed muscles should be 
rubbed five or ten minutes morning and evening. 
The operation requires patience, delicacy and care ; and 
may sometimes need to be continued thirty to sixty 
days. 

Meantime indulge in no excesses of any kind what- 
ever. Especially avoid both overeating and low diet. 
Eat, sleep, bathe, exercise, think and act carefully and 
well, being temperate and regular in everything. 

Wrinkles that appear around the eyes of young 
people are often caused by sleeping on the side. 



254 The Woman Beautiful. 

The pressure upon the temples and cheeks leaves 
wrinkles at the corners and underneath the eyes, which 
at first disappear in a few hours, but finally become so 



fixed that neither hours or ablutions will abate them. 

If girl children were compelled to sleep on their 
backs and continue the habit when they reach woman- 
hood, they would arrive at middle life without crows- 
feet gathering about the eyes, and in most cases their 
foreheads would be free from even shallow furrows. 

When a tooth is drawn, replace it as soon as possible 
with a false one. 

Soft, dark, warm colors in dress will do much for 
old age — with plenty of lace to soften the faded skin 
and cover the silvery hair ; for age, too, has its beauty, 
and it is incumbent on old ladies, as well as young 
ones, to make the most of all personal gifts. 

Wrinkles of age can be retarded and decreased by 
dissolving one grain of alum in a little rose water, then 
beat in the white of two eggs. Apply at night and 
wear a cloth mask. 

Another excellent remedy for wrinkles is the apply- 
ing of cold cream to the skin. 

The face should first be washed thoroughly clean 
with warm water, and then dried gently with a coarse 



The Woman Beautiful. 255 

towel. While the face is still warm, a little of the cold 
cream should be placed upon the hands and rubbed 
over the face, until almost entirely absorbed. Fifteen 
minutes is not too long for the purpose. Always 
rub upward toward the ears and scalp. 



DRESSING FOR BEAUTY. 



It seems hardly necessary to say that all the physical 
culture possible goes for nothing in the search for 
beauty if the important matter of dress is neglected. 
And yet how comparatively few women there are who 
know what kind of dress suits them and how to wear 
it. 

Many a pretty woman, no matter how elaborately 
gowned, spoils her appearance by throwing back the 
upper part of the body, letting the weight fall upon the 
heels, rather than the ball of the foot. 

Such a position, for example as Figure 25, page 22.7, 
detracts from the beauty of the figure and the cut of the 
dress. Figure 26, page 237, shows the proper poise 
of the body, and this should be copied as closely as 
possible if the best results are to follow. 

But the appearance of a woman depends also upon 
her choice of colors, and a few hints on this point may 
be welcome. 

For dark people with pale complexions and very lit- 
tle natural color, a rich Oriental tint is often the most 
suitable; white also is most becoming to them. 



The Woman Beautiful. 257 

They must beware of neutral tones, such as grays or 
fawns, dead browns or blues, with the exception of 
navy blue; blue is a color which is seldom becoming 
to the true brunette, and, if worn, must be judiciously 
mixed with something which will tone its high effect 
down. 

It also heightens the color, and its bright shades 
should be avoided by those whose complexion is at all 
florid. 

Rich, dark brown, relieved by a touch of brilliant 
yellow or black, with a tone of vivid red, is a far safer 
note for a dark or sallow woman to play. 

For the brunette with high coloring, there is seldom 
anything likely to be more becoming than cream or 
white, or, if she has a good complexion, a carefully 
selected shade of gray. All pinks are also likely to 
suit her. 

For the blonde, blue is generally the most becoming 
color she can turn to. 

A pale green, and various soft neutral tints, will har- 
monize well with her coloring and complexion, and 
some blondes with white skins look particularly well 
in shades of scarlet. But this is generally rather 
startling. ■ 

Of course, for the blonde with a really brilliant 



258 The Woman Beautiful. 

complexion, there is nothing so becoming as black, 
and a great deal is to be said for black for both blonde 
and brunette. 

It is usually considered expensive wear, but when 
one takes into consideration the many occasions on 
which it can be used when no color could, and its gen- 
eral usefulness, the manner in which it can be bright- 
ened up and given variety by the introduction of differ- 
ent colors, it cannot really be considered extravagant. 

A black gown of some description should be found 
in every one's wardrobe. 

Many women who have a favorite shade, and fancy 
they cannot wear it because it harmonizes so ill with 
their complexion and coloring, will find that a band 
of black velvet, or a collar of white lace_, will tone 
down the effect and render the color becoming to them. 

It is mainly when a color touches the skin that one 
notices how ill it harmonizes, and if the hard line is 
broken by some less brilliant tint, the effect is not so 
striking. 

All women over thirty should wear black or white 
round the neck, and a band of black velvet is the most 
becoming neckwear to every woman, young or old. It 
softens the lines of the face, and tones down any too 
brilliant coloring. 



The Woman Beautiful. 259 

A woman who has a love for color, and is yet not 
certain whether it suits her or not, can generally effect 
a compromise by gowning herself in some neutral 
shade, relieving it by collar, waistband, bow, or sash 
of a brilliant contrast. 

Thus gray, with a touch of old rose ; brown, with a 
note of yellow; dark blue, relieved by pale green; and 
black, with turquoise, a touch of vivid grass green, or 
the same old rose, may be made into a striking, and 
yet quiet, costume. 

To any one with a moderately bright or clear com- 
plexion, white is most becoming, and, of course, noth- 
ing looks so appropriate for young girls. 

In hot weather nothing looks so smart as a costume 
of unrelieved white, however simple ; but it is trying 
to any but a thin figure, and requires to be neatly 
made. 

Gloves should match the dress, if possible; if not, 
black or tan are the most useful and becoming. 

White gloves should only be worn on special occa- 
sions, or by a woman who can afford to wear them 
once or twice, and then have them cleaned. 

A pair of dirty white gloves will spoil an otherwise 
faultless costume. 

The great questior in the choice of a suitable gown 



160 The Woman Beautiful. 

is the consideration as to whether its wearer is stout 
or thin. 

The thin woman, who would make the best of her- 
self, must omit the word "lines" from her dictionary. 

She must wear full-banded bodices, soft fichus knot- 
ted in front, and beware of tight bodices, sashes and 
long-ended boas; in fact, she must beware of every- 
thing giving an impression of length and flatness. 

She may wear the most befrilled of ruffles, provided 
it has no long ends, and, in every case, she must seek to 
break up angular lines, and soften her contour gen- 
erally. 

The woman who is inclined toward stoutness must 
proceed in a different way, if she would look her 
best. Long, flowing lines are to be her watchword; 
frills must be absolutely tabooed. 

She may have a flounce of accordeon pleating, if she 
specially desires it, but it were better if she kept to 
long, straight lines. 

She must beware of the high stock collar, especially 
if she is double-chinned. For her are the soft, turned- 
down collars of lace, or the fichus caught by a jewel. 

For a stout woman to wear tight-fitting clothes is 
the most absolute mistake possible. Tight-fitting 



The Woman Beautiful. 261 

clothes are for the woman with a good figure, who is 
neither stout nor thin. 

If the lady possessed of too much flesh crushes her- 
self into a tight-fitting garment, it accentuates her 
stoutness and the lines of her figure. 

In particular, she must pay the greatest attention to 
her corsets, and beware of incasing herself in a high- 
busted stay, which will give her the appearance of 
being laced into a strait-waistcoat. 

Let her wear a good low corset, which supports, but 
does not push up the bust, and makes for straight lines 
in the front of the figure, rather than for a small waist. 

The advantage of having a good corset-maker who 
has studied anatomy is so patent that it need scarcely 
be insisted on. A cheap, ill-fitting corset of the so- 
called hygienic sort is often much more injurious than 
one that is well-cut and tight enough to fit the figure. 
The bones of a loose corset have a way of running into 
the chest that is not only very disagreeable and painful 
but also damaging. The cheap, ready-made corset is 
often too tight across the chest, and this is particularly 
injurious for growing girls. Cases of cancer have 
been traced to systematic constriction of this kind. 

A corset instead of having one long stay-lace should 
have three shorter ones. The top one should be car- 



262 The Woman Beautiful. 

ried clown to a depth of about five eyelet holes, and 
there should be a bountiful provision of the lace left 
here, in order to give abundant breathing room to the 
lungs, permitting the chest to expand to the fullest, and 
allowing long, deep breaths to be drawn without that 
peculiar catch which denotes injurious tightness. 
There need be no exaggerated looseness, but only suf- 
ficient to afford perfect freedom from pressure. In- 
stead of spoiling the look of the figure, this actually 
improves it. 

The second lace should fill the eyelet holes below the 
first one down to the waist line, and should end there. 
It is sometimes even advisable to leave an eyelet hole 
on either side free from lacing, between the first and 
second stay-lace. But the object of the whole ar- 
rangement is to enable the second one to be drawn 
tight without squeezing in the upper part of the figure 
in the least. And the third lace, in the same way, en- 
ables the wearer to avoid pressure on the hips, where 
it is highly injurious to some of the internal organs. 

Of course, this is all unnecessary when funds are 
available to command a well-made corset from a 
trained physiologist, as are all really good corsetieres, 
who fit the figure with exactest skill, and, without 
squeezing or tightening, give it a graceful outline. 



The Woman Beautiful. 263 

As a final word on the subject of dress, remember 
that it is not wise to adhere rigidly to the dictates of 
fashion regardless of suitability. Fortunately, we live 
in an age when a woman may be a law unto herself, 
provided she looks well and does not violate the laws 
of good taste and art. 

Moderation is a particularly disagreeable word to 
many people ; the middle way is not a very interesting 
one to follow nowadays, and there are many who are 
inclined to extremes. 

And yet the lack of moderation in dress is in the 
worst possible taste. There is nothing so vulgar as to 
be overdressed, but, on the other hand, there is noth- 
ing so foolish, unladylike, and unfeminine, as not to 
care about what one wears. To arrive at the happy 
medium is an art in itself. 

THE END. 



